title: Systematic coarse-graining of spectrin-level red blood cell models.
abstract: We present a rigorous procedure to derive coarse-grained red blood cell (RBC) models, which yield accurate mechanical response. Based on a semi-analytic theory the linear and nonlinear elastic properties of healthy and infected RBCs in malaria can be matched with those obtained in optical tweezers stretching experiments. The present analysis predicts correctly the membrane Young's modulus in contrast to about 50% error in predictions by previous models. In addition, we develop a stress-free model which avoids a number of pitfalls of existing RBC models, such as non-smooth or poorly controlled equilibrium shape and dependence of the mechanical properties on the initial triangulation quality. Here we employ dissipative particle dynamics for the implementation but the proposed model is general and suitable for use in many existing continuum and particle-based numerical methods.
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 USA.
authors.forename: Dmitry A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Fedosov
authors.affiliation: Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 USA.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caswell
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Mathematics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 USA.
authors.forename: George Em
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Karniadakis
keywords: Atomistic modeling; Dissipative particle dynamics; Spectrin model