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A red blood cell (RBC) in a microfluidic channel is highly interesting for scientists in various fields of research on biological systems. This system has been studied extensively by empirical, analytical, and numerical methods. Nonetheless, research of predicting the behavior of an RBC in a microchannel is still an interesting area. The complications arise from deformation of an RBC and interactions among the surrounding fluid, wall, and RBCs. In this study, a pressure-driven RBC in a microchannel was simulated with a threedimensional lattice Boltzmann method of an immersed boundary. First, the effect of boundary thickness on the interaction between the wall and cell was analyzed by measuring the time of passage through the narrow channel. Second, the effect of volume conservation stiffness was studied. Finally, the effect of global area stiffness was analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To analyze the jamming and unjamming transition of oil-in-water emulsions under continuous temperature change, we simulated an emulsion system whose critical volume fraction was 0.3, which was validated with experimental results under oscillatory shear stress. In addition, we calculated the elastic modulus using the phase lag between strain and stress. Through heating and cooling, the emulsion experienced unjamming and jamming. A phenomenon--which is when the elastic modulus does not reach the expected value at the isothermal system--occurred when the emulsion system was cooled. We determined that this phenomenon was caused by the frequency being faster than the relaxation of the deformed droplets. We justified the relation between the frequency and relaxation by simulating the frequency dependency of the difference between the elastic modulus when cooled and the expected value at the same temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An emulsion system was simulated under simple shear rates to analyze its rheological characteristics using a hierarchical multi-scale approach. The molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was used to describe the interface of droplets in an emulsion. The equations derived from the MD simulation relative to interfacial tension, temperature, and surfactant concentration were applied as input parameters within lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) calculations. In the LBM simulation, we calculated the relative viscosity of an emulsion under a simple shear rate along with changes in temperature, shear rate, and surfactant concentration. The equations from the MD simulation showed that the interfacial tension of the droplets tended to decrease with an increase in temperature and surfactant concentration. The relative viscosity from the LBM simulation decreased with an increase in temperature. The shear thinning phenomena explaining the inverse proportion between shear rate and viscosity were observed. An increase in the surfactant concentration caused an increase in the relative viscosity for a decane-in-water emulsion, because the increased deformation caused by the decreased interfacial tension significantly influenced the wall shear stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interfacial nanoroughness of liquid plays an important role in the reliability of liquid lenses, capillary waves, and mass transfer in biological cells [Grilli et al., Opt. Express 16, 8084 (2008), Wang et al, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. 18, 2650 (2006), and T. Fukuma et al., 92, 3603 (2007)]. However, the nanoroughness of liquid is hard to visualize or measure due to the instability and dynamics of the liquid-gas interface. In this study, we blanket a liquid water surface with monolayer graphene to project the nanoroughness of the liquid surface. Monolayer graphene can project the surface roughness because of the extremely high flexibility attributed to its one atomic thickness. The interface of graphene and water is successfully mimicked by the molecular dynamics method. The nanoroughness of graphene and water is defined based on density distribution. The correlation among the roughness of graphene and water is developed within a certain temperature range (298-390 K). The results show that the roughness of water surface is successfully transferred to graphene surface. Surface tension is also calculated with a simple water slab. The rise of temperature increased the roughness and decreased the surface tension. Finally, the relationship between graphene roughness and surface tension is fitted with a secondorder polynomial equation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we simulated deformation and surfactant distribution on the interface of a surfactant-covered droplet using optical tweezers as an external source. Two optical forces attracted a single droplet from the center to both sides. This resulted in an elliptical shape deformation. The droplet deformation was characterized as the change of the magnitudes of surface tension and optical force. In this process, a non-linear relationship among deformation, surface tension, and optical forces was observed. The change in the local surfactant concentration resulting from the application of optical forces was also analyzed and compared with the concentration of surfactants subjected to an extensional flow. Under the optical force influence, the surfactant molecules were concentrated at the droplet equator, which is totally opposite to the surfactants behavior under extensional flow, where the molecules were concentrated at the poles. Lastly, the quasi-equilibrium surfactant distribution was obtained by combining the effects of the optical forces with the extensional flow. All simulations were executed by the lattice Boltzmann method which is a powerful tool for solving micro-scale problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]