  The deformation of an initially spherical capsule, freely suspended in simple
shear flow, can be computed analytically in the limit of small deformations [D.
Barthes-Biesel, J. M. Rallison, The Time-Dependent Deformation of a Capsule
Freely Suspended in a Linear Shear Flow, J. Fluid Mech. 113 (1981) 251-267].
Those analytic approximations are used to study the influence of the mesh
tessellation method, the spatial resolution, and the discrete delta function of
the immersed boundary method on the numerical results obtained by a coupled
immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann finite element method. For the description
of the capsule membrane, a finite element method and the Skalak constitutive
model [R. Skalak et al., Strain Energy Function of Red Blood Cell Membranes,
Biophys. J. 13 (1973) 245-264] have been employed. Our primary goal is the
investigation of the presented model for small resolutions to provide a sound
basis for efficient but accurate simulations of multiple deformable particles
immersed in a fluid. We come to the conclusion that details of the membrane
mesh, as tessellation method and resolution, play only a minor role. The
hydrodynamic resolution, i.e., the width of the discrete delta function, can
significantly influence the accuracy of the simulations. The discretization of
the delta function introduces an artificial length scale, which effectively
changes the radius and the deformability of the capsule. We discuss
possibilities of reducing the computing time of simulations of deformable
objects immersed in a fluid while maintaining high accuracy.
