Eur. Phys. J. E (2006) 20: 37-45
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2005-10079-5

Regular Article

Dynamic model and stationary shapes of fluid vesicles

Departament d'Estructura i Constituents de la Matèria, Facultat de Fısica, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 647, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain

^* e-mail: campelo@ecm.ub.es

Received: 13 December 2005
Accepted: 14 March 2006
Published online: 20 April 2006

Abstract

A phase-field model that takes into account the bending energy of fluid vesicles is presented. The Canham-Helfrich model is derived in the sharp-interface limit. A dynamic equation for the phase-field has been solved numerically to find stationary shapes of vesicles with different topologies and the dynamic evolution towards them. The results are in agreement with those found by minimization of the Canham-Helfrich free energy. This fact shows that our phase-field model could be applied to more complex problems of instabilities.