Effect of collision, size, and oscillation of RBCs on blood heat transfer in a bifurcated vessel

Abstract

This study attempts to analyze the effect of red blood cells (RBCs) on blood heat transfer in a three-dimensional bifurcated vessel when treated with hyperthermia procedure. A two-phase granular model is used in this paper to study the various underlying factors that affect the flow dynamics of RBCs in a blood vessel. Separate cases are analyzed to study the effect of RBC size, RBC-RBC, and RBC-wall collision and oscillation on heat transfer in a three-dimensional bifurcated vessel under pulsatile flow condition. Blood temperature and transient Nusselt number are used as heat transfer representative parameters. A good agreement with the experimental results from the existing literature is observed when the numerical model used in this study is compared for accuracy. From this study, it has been found that an increase in the size of RBCs of a blood disorder patient can decrease the temperature of blood compared to a normal patient when subjected to hyperthermia treatment. A change in the nature of collision between RBCs does not affect the heat transfer of blood under pulsatile flow condition in a bifurcated vessel. Also, an increase in granular temperature or oscillation of RBCs slightly increases the blood temperature when exposed to thermal treatment.