New Approach on the General Shape Equation of Axisymmetric Vesicles

The general Helfrich shape equation determined by minimizing the curvature free energy describes the equilibrium shapes of the axisymmetric lipid bilayer vesicles in different conditions. It is a non-linear differential equation with variable coefficients. In this letter, by analyzing the unique property of the solution, we change this shape equation into a system of the two differential equations. One of them is a linear differential equation. This equation system contains all of the known rigorous solutions of the general shape equation. And the more general constraint conditions are found for the solution of the general shape equation.Comment: 8 pages, LaTex, submit to Mod. Phys. Lett.

Forchheimer flow to a well-considering time-dependent critical radius

Previous studies on the non-Darcian flow into a pumping well assumed that critical radius (RCD) was a constant or infinity, where RCD represents the location of the interface between the non-Darcian flow region and Darcian flow region. In this study, a two-region model considering time-dependent RCD was established, where the non-Darcian flow was described by the Forchheimer equation. A new iteration method was proposed to estimate RCD based on the finite-difference method. The results showed that RCD increased with time until reaching the quasi steady-state flow, and the asymptotic value of RCD only depended on the critical specific discharge beyond which flow became non-Darcian. A larger inertial force would reduce the change rate of RCD with time, and resulted in a smaller RCD at a specific time during the transient flow. The difference between the new solution and previous solutions were obvious in the early pumping stage. The new solution agreed very well with the solution of the previous two-region model with a constant RCD under quasi steady flow. It agreed with the solution of the fully Darcian flow model in the Darcian flow region