Multiphase measurement of blood flow in a microchannel

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Blood is a complex fluid comprising red blood cells (RBCs) suspended in a continuous medium. Recent studies have shown that the spatial concentration distributions of the RBCs have a considerable impact on their velocity distributions. By extending this analysis, we present the first multiphase experimental analysis of microscale blood flow to include local velocity and concentration distributions of both phases of the blood. Human blood is perfused though a PDMS microchannel comprising a sequentially bifurcating geometry with a 50×50μm cross-section. The flow rate and the proportion of flow entering the branches of the bifurcation are varied, and the effects on the velocity and concentration distributions of the RBCs and suspending medium are analysed. In addition, the influence of RBC aggregation is investigated. The relative velocity between the two phases of the blood is shown to be dependent to varying degrees on all of the independent parameters examined in this study. A mechanism for the observed trends based on collisions of RBCs with the channel walls in the bifurcation is proposed

Effects of aggregation on the blood flow velocity field measured by a μPIV based technique

This paper was presented at the 2nd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2009), which was held at Brunel University, West London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, IPEM, the Italian Union of Thermofluid dynamics, the Process Intensification Network, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.The flow of red blood cells is investigated by means of a micro-PIV based technique at physiological hematocrit levels and in the presence of aggregation. The technique developed differs from typical micro-PIV as the RBCs are used as tracer particles and illumination is provided by a simple halogen light source. Changes in the microstructure of blood caused by aggregation were observed to affect the RBC flow characteristics in a narrow-gap plate-plate geometry. At low shear rates, high aggregation caused the RBC motion to become essentially two-dimensional and network formation lead to the flow deviating from the expected radial profile. The accuracy of the micro-PIV technique was shown to be dependent on aggregation, illustrating the need to take aggregation into account in future RBC flow studies.This work was supported in part by the EPSRC Life Sciences Interface program (EP/F007736/1) and by the Leverhulme Trust(F/07 040/X)

Flow field characterisation of aggregating human blood in bifurcating microchannels

This paper was presented at the 3rd Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2011), which was held at the Makedonia Palace Hotel, Thessaloniki in Greece. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, University of Thessaly, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute.Erythrocyte aggregation is a shear dependent physiological phenomenon that modifies local properties of blood flow. Blood flow characteristics in microvascular bifurcations are dependent on many parameters; however the influence of erythrocyte aggregation has not been investigated previously in vitro. In the present study, micro-PIV is used to provide high spatial resolution velocity data for both erythrocytes and suspending medium for aggregating and non-aggregating human blood samples in a microchannel with a T-bifurcation geometry on the scale of the microcirculation. Simultaneous hematocrit distributions are inferred from brightfield images. Full field shear distributions are described for an evenly split flow and single flow rate. Velocity profiles of cells upstream of the bifurcation are found to be less blunt than those of the suspended particles. Daughter branch velocity profiles downstream of the bifurcation are skewed towards the wall closest to the parent branch, and non-aggregating cell velocities are significantly less blunted than those of the aggregating case. The local hematocrit is increased at the channel wall opposite the parent branch and a cell-depleted layer is observed near the channel wall closest to the parent branch. Thus, it is shown that aggregation influences both hematocrit and velocity distributions around and downstream of a bifurcation

An investigation on the rheodynamics of human red blood cells using high performance computations

This paper was presented at the 4th Micro and Nano Flows Conference (MNF2014), which was held at University College, London, UK. The conference was organised by Brunel University and supported by the Italian Union of Thermofluiddynamics, IPEM, the Process Intensification Network, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, the Heat Transfer Society, HEXAG - the Heat Exchange Action Group, and the Energy Institute, ASME Press, LCN London Centre for Nanotechnology, UCL University College London, UCL Engineering, the International NanoScience Community, www.nanopaprika.eu.Studies on the haemodynamics of human circulation are clinically and scientifically important. The flow of human blood is extremely complex due to the existence of the highly deformable red blood cells (RBCs), which are able to pass through capillaries smaller than their size. To investigate the effect of deformation and aggregation in blood flow, a computational technique has been developed by coupling the interaction between the fluid and the deformable solids. The flow of 49,512 RBCs at 45% concentration and under the influence of aggregating forces was examined to improve the existing knowledge on how to simulate and study the blood flow and its structural characteristics of blood at a large scale. The simulation was carried out with full parallelization of the coupled fluid-solid code using spatial decomposition and high performance supercomputers. The large scale feature of the simulation has enabled a macroscale verification and investigation of the overall characteristics of RBC aggregations to be carried out. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental studies and, more specifically, both the experimental and the simulation results show uniform RBC distributions under high shear rates (60-100/s) whereas large aggregations were observed under a lower shear rate of 10/s. The statistical analysis of the simulation data also shows that the shear rate has significant influence on both the flow velocity profiles and the frequency distribution of the RBC orientation angles. The flow under the low shear rate also tended to have bi-phasic velocity profile which is mainly due to the formation of large scale aggregation clusters

Quantifying local characteristics of velocity, aggregation and hematocrit of human erythrocytes in a microchannel flow

The effect of erythrocyte aggregation on blood viscosity and microcirculatory flow is a poorly understood area of haemodynamics, especially with relevance to serious pathological conditions. Advances in microfluidics have made it possible to study the details of blood flow in the microscale, however, important issues such as the relationship between the local microstructure and local flow characteristics have not been investigated extensively. In the present study an experimental system involving simple brightfield microscopy has been successfully developed for simultaneous, time-resolved quantification of velocity fields and local aggregation of human red blood cells (RBC) in microchannels. RBCs were suspended in Dextran and phosphate buffer saline solutions for the control of aggregation. Local aggregation characteristics were investigated at bulk and local levels using statistical and edge-detection image processing techniques. A special case of aggregating flow in a microchannel, in which hematocrit gradients were present, was studied as a function of flowrate and time. The level of aggregation was found to strongly correlate with local variations in velocity in both the bulk flow and wall regions. The edge detection based analysis showed that near the side wall large aggregates are associated with regions corresponding to high local velocities and low local shear. On the contrary, in the bulk flow region large aggregates occurred in regions of low velocity and high erythrocyte concentration suggesting a combined effect of hematocrit and velocity distributions on local aggregation characteristics. The results of this study showed that using multiple methods for aggregation quantification, albeit empirical, could help towards a robust characterisation of the structural properties of the fluid

Quantifying local characteristics of velocity, aggregation and hematocrit of human erythrocytes in a microchannel flow

The effect of erythrocyte aggregation on blood viscosity and microcirculatory flow is a poorly understood area of haemodynamics, especially with relevance to serious pathological conditions. Advances in microfluidics have made it possible to study the details of blood flow in the microscale, however, important issues such as the relationship between the local microstructure and local flow characteristics have not been investigated extensively. In the present study an experimental system involving simple brightfield microscopy has been successfully developed for simultaneous, time-resolved quantification of velocity fields and local aggregation of human red blood cells (RBC) in microchannels. RBCs were suspended in Dextran and phosphate buffer saline solutions for the control of aggregation. Local aggregation characteristics were investigated at bulk and local levels using statistical and edge-detection image processing techniques. A special case of aggregating flow in a microchannel, in which hematocrit gradients were present, was studied as a function of flowrate and time. The level of aggregation was found to strongly correlate with local variations in velocity in both the bulk flow and wall regions. The edge detection based analysis showed that near the side wall large aggregates are associated with regions corresponding to high local velocities and low local shear. On the contrary, in the bulk flow region large aggregates occurred in regions of low velocity and high erythrocyte concentration suggesting a combined effect of haematocrit and velocity distributions on local aggregation characteristics. The results of this study showed that using multiple methods for aggregation quantification, albeit empirical, could help towards a robust characterisation of the structural properties of the fluid

Surface tension driven flow of blood in a rectangular microfluidic channel: Effect of erythrocyte aggregation

Microfluidic platforms have increasingly been explored for in vitro blood diagnostics and for studying complex microvascular processes. The perfusion of blood in such devices is typically achieved through pressure driven set-ups. Surface tension driven blood flow provides an alternative flow delivery option, and various studies in the literature have examined the behaviour of blood flow in such fluidic devices. In such flows, the influence of red blood cell (RBC) aggregation, the phenomenon majorly responsible for the non-Newtonian nature of blood, requires particular attention. In the present work, we examine differences in the surface tension driven flow of aggregating, non-aggregating RBC, and Newtonian suspensions, in a rectangular micro channel. The velocity fields were obtained using microPIV techniques. The analytical solution for blood velocity in the channel is developed utilising the power law model for blood viscosity. The results showed that RBC aggregation has an impact at the late stages of the flow, observed mainly in the bluntness of the velocity profiles. At the initial stages of the flow the shearing conditions are found moderately elevated, preventing intense RBC aggregate formation. As the flow decelerates in the channel RBC aggregation increases, affecting the flow characteristics

An Investigation on the Aggregation and Rheodynamics of Human Red Blood Cells Using High Performance Computations.

Studies on the haemodynamics of human circulation are clinically and scientifically important. In order to investigate the effect of deformation and aggregation of red blood cells (RBCs) in blood flow, a computational technique has been developed by coupling the interaction between the fluid and the deformable RBCs. Parallelization was carried out for the coupled code and a high speedup was achieved based on a spatial decomposition. In order to verify the code's capability of simulating RBC deformation and transport, simulations were carried out for a spherical capsule in a microchannel and multiple RBC transport in a Poiseuille flow. RBC transport in a confined tube was also carried out to simulate the peristaltic effects of microvessels. Relatively large-scale simulations were carried out of the motion of 49,512 RBCs in shear flows, which yielded a hematocrit of 45%. The large-scale feature of the simulation has enabled a macroscale verification and investigation of the overall characteristics of RBC aggregations to be carried out. The results are in excellent agreement with experimental studies and, more specifically, both the experimental and simulation results show uniform RBC distributions under high shear rates (60-100/s) whereas large aggregations were observed under a lower shear rate of 10/s

Partitioning of red blood cell aggregates in bifurcating microscale flows

Microvascular flows are often considered to be free of red blood cell aggregates, however, recent studies have demonstrated that aggregates are present throughout the microvasculature, affecting cell distribution and blood perfusion. This work reports on the spatial distribution of red blood cell aggregates in a T-shaped bifurcation on the scale of a large microvessel. Non-aggregating and aggregating human red blood cell suspensions were studied for a range of flow splits in the daughter branches of the bifurcation. Aggregate sizes were determined using image processing. The mean aggregate size was marginally increased in the daughter branches for a range of flow rates, mainly due to the lower shear conditions and the close cell and aggregate proximity therein. A counterintuitive decrease in the mean aggregate size was apparent in the lower flow rate branches. This was attributed to the existence of regions depleted by aggregates of certain sizes in the parent branch, and to the change in the exact flow split location in the T-junction with flow ratio. The findings of the present investigation may have significant implications for microvascular flows and may help explain why the effects of physiological RBC aggregation are not deleterious in terms of in vivo vascular resistance

Local viscosity distribution in bifurcating microfluidic blood flows

The red blood cell (RBC) aggregation phenomenon is majorly responsible for the non-Newtonian nature of blood, influencing the blood flow characteristics in the microvasculature. Of considerable interest is the behaviour of the fluid at the bifurcating regions. In vitro experiments, using microchannels, have shown that RBC aggregation, at certain flow conditions, affects the bluntness and skewness of the velocity profile, the local RBC concentration, and the cell-depleted layer at the channel walls. In addition, the developed RBC aggregates appear unevenly distributed in the outlets of these channels depending on their spatial distribution in the feeding branch, and on the flow conditions in the outlet branches. In the present work, constitutive equations of blood viscosity, from earlier work of the authors, are applied to flows in a T-type bifurcating microchannel to examine the local viscosity characteristics. Viscosity maps are derived for various flow distributions in the outlet branches of the channel, and the location of maximum viscosity magnitude is obtained. The viscosity does not appear significantly elevated in the branches of lower flow rate as would be expected on the basis of the low shear therein, and the maximum magnitude appears in the vicinity of the junction, and towards the side of the outlet branch with the higher flow rate. The study demonstrates that in the branches of lower flow rate, the local viscosity is also low, helping us to explain why the effects of physiological red blood cell aggregation have no adverse effects in terms of in vivo vascular resistance