We investigated how non-Newtonian viscosity behavior affects the flow characteristics of blood cells. Our findings offer insight about how shear thinning affects the dispersion of liposome-encapsulated hemoglobin and red blood cells in blood. The lattice Boltzmann method was used for fluid calculations, and the rheological properties of the non-Newtonian fluid were modeled with power-law relationships. The deformable three-dimensional red blood cell model was applied. First, we investigated the effects of shear thinning on the flow behavior of single blood cell. Simulation results indicate that shear thinning promotes the axial concentration of red blood cells. Next, varied the hematocrit to see how mutual interference between blood cells affects flow. At low hematocrit, shear thinning clearly promotes the axial concentration of red blood cells. As the hematocrit increases, in contrast, mutual interference has a greater effect, which counteracts shear thinning so the red blood cell distribution resembles the distribution within a Newtonian fluid.
Investigation of red blood cell mechanical properties using AFM indentation and coarse-grained particle method
