Mechanics of Blood Flow in Microvessels

ABSTRACT Proposal Number: 0625936 Principal Investigator: Bagchi, Prosenjit Affiliation: Rutgers University New Brunswick Proposal Title: Mechanics of Blood Flow in Microvessels Intellectual Merit: The proposed modeling work includes the impacts of cell aggregation, white blood cell interactions, complex flow geometry and multi-particle hydrodynamics. The focus will be on modeling red blood cell aggregation and solid-liquid suspensions to include other physics of interest in red blood cell transport. The work will address an issue of significant interdisciplinary interest in modeling multiple physical forces on cells treated as membrane encapsulated viscous liquids, with red blood cells being the cell of interest. The application of existing immersed boundary methods combined with direct numerical simulation has been done but the application to the problem of red blood cell transport in capillaries is novel. The simulations will be multi-scale, fully three dimensional, unsteady and their dynamic deformation will be accurately resolved. Molecular interaction between adjacent cells and between cell and vessel wall will also be modeled by a kinetic approach, and be coupled to the hydrodynamics. Broader Impact: The proposal has the potential to increase the understanding of human physiology, microfluidic transport of cells and biotechnology applications involving cell transport, and as such could broadly impact society. A program of educational integration of the research is provided including interaction with an undergraduate research program and undergraduate and graduate courses. The research will be disseminated through publication in journals and conferences and underrepresented minorities will be recruited into the research.