7–11 Sept 2026
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Europe/Berlin timezone

Two-phase flows with bulk-surface interaction in an evolving domain with applications to cell biology

10 Sept 2026, 15:00
30m
Main building/Floor 1-Room 2094 - Lecture Hall (HU (Main Building))

Main building/Floor 1-Room 2094 - Lecture Hall

HU (Main Building)

HU Berlin Main Building Unter den Linden 6 10117 Berlin
178
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Free Boundaries in Biology Free Boundaries in Biology

Speaker

Patrik Knopf (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT))

Description

I will present a thermodynamically consistent model (from a collaboration with Y. Liu), which describes the time evolution of a two-phase flow in an evolving domain. The movement of the free boundary of the domain is driven by the velocity field of the mixture in the bulk, which is determined by a Navier--Stokes equation. In order to take interactions between bulk and boundary into account, we further consider two materials on the boundary, which may be the same or different materials as those in the bulk. The bulk and the surface materials are represented by respective phase-fields, whose time evolution is described by a bulk-surface convective Cahn--Hilliard equation. This approach allows for a transfer of material between bulk and surface as well as variable contact angles between the diffuse interface in the bulk and the boundary of the domain. To provide a more accurate description of the corresponding contact line motion, we include a generalized Navier slip boundary condition on the velocity field. Based on local mass balance laws, we derive our model from scratch in two different ways: by the Lagrange Multiplier Approach and (in the case of matched densities and no mass flux between bulk and surface) by the Energetic Variational Approach. We further show that our model generalizes previous models from the literature, which can be recovered from our system by either dropping the dynamic boundary conditions or assuming a static boundary of the domain.

Author

Patrik Knopf (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT))

Co-author

Yadong Liu (Nanjing Normal University)

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