Molecular dynamics simulation of a microvillus in a cross flow

One of the functions of microvilli in the microvessel endothelial glycocalyx is molecular filtering. The microvillus behaves as a mechanosensory system which may sense the fluid shear and drag forces. The permeability of small particles in microvessel is crucial for drug design and drug delivery. Therefore a better understanding of flow field around microvillus is important to simulate accurately the particle penetration in microvessel. Since the dimension of the microvilli is about ∼10 nm, the conventional Navier-Stokes equation may not be good enough to simulate the fluid flow in such microscale and nanoscale structures. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulation is a powerful method to simulate the fluid flow at the molecular level. As a first attempt, the microvillus is reduced as a two-dimensional cylinder which is in a cross flow. The detailed drag and lift together with flow field are obtained and compared with available data.