Numerical simulation of blood flow with different red blood cell deformability

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of changes of red blood cell deformability on micro‐hemodynamics by using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with Immersed Boundary Method (IBM). The blood flow of 40% stiff red blood cells and 60% normal cells was simulated and the result was compared with that of 100% normal red blood cells. The deformability of stiff cells was 50% less than normal cells. Thus, with the stiff cells, the averaged red blood cell deformability became 20% less than normal condition, which is similar to the condition of malaria‐infected blood. The simulation was conducted at 40% hematocrit and 100 s−1 pseudo shear rate. In this study, the viscosity difference between inside and outside fluids of red blood cell membrane was considered by using a flood fill method. The results showed that the effective viscosity of blood flow with stiff red blood cells significantly increased compared with that without the stiff cells. The axial migration of the stiff cells moving away from the centerline was observed during the simulation.This work was supported by NUS URC Grant R‐397‐000‐091‐112.