Dynamic motion of red blood cells in simple shear flow

Abstract

A three-dimensional numerical model is proposed to simulate the dynamic motion of red blood cells (RBCs) in simple shear flow. The RBCs are approximated by ghost cells consisting of Newtonian liquid drops enclosed by Skalak membranes which take into account the membrane shear elasticity and the membrane area incompressibility. The RBCs have an initially biconcave discoid resting shape, and the internal liquid is assumed to have the same physical properties as the matrix fluid. The simulation is based on a hybrid method, in which the immersed boundary concept is introduced into the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method, and a finite element model is incorporated to obtain the forces acting on the nodes of the cell membrane which is discretized into flat triangular elements. The dynamic motion of RBCs is investigated in simple shear flow under a broad range of shear rates. At large shear rates, the cells are found to carry out a swinging motion, in which periodic inclination oscillation and shape deformation superimpose on the membrane tank treading motion. With the shear rate decreasing, the swinging amplitude of the cell increases, and finally triggers a transition to tumbling motion. This is the first direct numerical simulation that predicts both the swinging motion of the RBCs and the shear rate induced transition, which have been observed in a recent experiment. It is also found that as the mode changes from swinging to tumbling, the apparent viscosity of the suspension increases monotonically.