Adhesion and detachment of a capsule in axisymmetric flow

Abstract

The adhesion and detachment of a capsule on a solid boundary surface is studied via a combination of scaling theory and numerical simulation and the behavior is compared and contrasted with a vesicle. It is shown that the dominant physical property for both capsules and vesicles is the area dilation modulus Ks of the membrane. The nonzero shear modulus Gs for capsules increases the resistance to deformation and thus decreases slightly the equilibrium contact radius for an adhered capsule compared to an adhered vesicle. The detachment process in this study is due to an external axisymmetric flow. Unlike a rigid body that must be pulled away without change of shape, capsules (and vesicles) almost always detach dominantly by peeling in which the contact radius decreases but the minimum separation distance does not change until the final moments of detachment. Compared to a vesicle with the same Ks, a capsule maintains a more compact shape and is harder to elongate under a given external flow. Hence, the detachment process is slower for capsules compared to vesicles with the same Ks.