Formation of the three-dimensional geometry of the red blood cell membrane

Abstract

Red blood cells (rbcs) are nonnucleated liquid capsules, enclosed in deformable viscoelastic membranes with complex three dimensional geometrical structures. Generally, rbc membranes are highly incom-pressible and resistant to areal changes. However, rbc membranes show a planar shear deformation and out of plane bending deformation. The behaviour of rbcs in blood vessels is investigated using numerical models. All the characteristics of rbc membranes should be addressed to develop a more accurate and stable model. This article presents an effective methodology to model the three dimensional geometry of the rbc membrane with the aid of commercial software comsol Multi-physics 4.2a and Fortran programming. Initially, a mesh is generated