Transition to Tumbling and Two Regimes of Tumbling Motion of a Vesicle in Shear Flow

Abstract

Experimental results on the tank-treading-tumbling transition in the dynamics of a vesicle subjected to a shear flow as a function of a vesicle excess area, viscosity contrast, and the normalized shear rate are presented. Good agreement on the transition curve and scaling behavior with theory and numerical simulations was found. A new type of unsteady motion at a large degree of vesicle deformability was discovered and described as follows: a vesicle trembles around the flow direction, while the vesicle shape strongly oscillates.