Calibration of elastic coefficients for spring-network model of red blood cell

Abstract

Spring network models are a useful tool when modeling elastic objects, such as red blood cells flowing in fluid, because the elastic moduli can be effectively modeled by springs or spring-like bonds between mesh nodes on the surface of the object. These bonds can conserve surface area, volume and preserve shape. Similarly to physical springs, these bonds have elastic coefficients that determine their resistance to change. In order to match the behavior of the modeled cell to the behavior of biological cell, the elastic coefficients need to be calibrated, e.g. by using data from optical tweezers experiments with red blood cells. In this work, we present a method for efficient calibration of a new mesh, when one already has a precise calibration for two baseline meshes and provide the resulting sets of parameters that can be directly used in Object-in-fluid framework of scientific software ESPResSo.