Numerical investigation of blood flow. Part II: In capillaries

Abstract

In order to understand the normal and pathologic behavior of the human vascular system, detailed knowledge of blood flow and the response of blood vessels is required. In fact the ability to predict the flow hydrodynamics at any site in the vessels can lead to a better understanding of the behavior of blood flow. Simulation can play an important role in understanding the hemodynamic forces. The objective of the present attempt was to simulate the behavior of blood flow in microvessels using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Numerical analysis is performed using a commercially available CFD package Fluent 6.2 which is based on the finite volume method. A continuum approach is proposed in which fluid structure interaction has been taken into account. Based on limitations imposed by computational resources, a more simplified model based on volume of fluid (VOF) approach is suggested to simulate movements of RBCs in capillaries and also to predict RBCs’ deformation. Three-dimensional incompressible laminar flow fields are obtained by solving continuity and Navier–Stokes equations computationally. It was found that multiphase CFD simulations may give further insight into the dynamic characteristics of blood flow under complex flow conditions.