Numerical simulation of complex flows involving elastic membranes, fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interfaces

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The numerical simulation of multicomponent and multiphase flows has important applications in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering. In the past we have developed algorithms and computer codes for the direct simulation of the dynamics of rigid particles and drops and bubbles in viscous fluids. During the next five years we plan to extend the free boundary algorithms to incorporate a surface rheology that accounts for the presence of elastic membranes so that we can simulate the behaviour of blood cells in shear flows. The red blood cells are subjected to large shears in many practical situations like the flow around artificial heart valves for example, and often they can not survive the stress exerted on them. Therefore, it is important to simulate numerically their behaviour in a variety of shear flows and estimate their chances to survive.