Study of Bioparticle Transport Using Lattice Boltzmann Method and Immersed Boundary Method

Prof. Yan Perng

This talk will present a computational framework to simulate bioparticle transport involving complex fluid-structure interactions. Several important numerical issues have to be addressed: (1) Numerical stiffness and convergence challenges due to the strong fluid-structure interactions; (2) Resolution of unsteady phenomena such as wakes, separation and vortices induced by interactions of flows with deformable moving boundaries. To overcome these challenges, the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) is used to model the fluid motion because of its accuracy (low dissipation/low dispersion and better isotropy) and computational advantages including its excellent parallel scalability, absence of the need to solve a time consuming elliptic Poisson-type equation for the pressure field, and ease of representa- tion of complex boundaries on Cartesian grids. The immersed boundary method (IBM) is chosen to track the deformable moving boundaries for its ease of implementation without re-meshing to generate the body-fitted mesh. One of the main motivations for this study comes from the Lab-on-a-chip (LoC) application, important for biomedical, pharmaceutical, and environmental industries. Some numerical results of flow-induced deformation of a red blood cell and its shape recovery from shear flow induced deformation are presented.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Yan Peng is an Assistant Professor in Department of Mathematics and Statistics in Old Dominion University. Her research has been concentrated on the mathematical analysis, numerical modeling and simulations by using kinetic methods, such as the lattice Boltzmann equation (LBE) and gas kinetic scheme. Currently she is working on numerical study of complex bio-fluids in microfluidic lab-on-a-chip for bio-medical applications.