Particle and rigidized red blood cell concentration distributions in microchannel flows

Abstract

The motion and concentration distribution of particles and cells in flow are important factors which affect the fluid properties, flow structure, and mass transfer of biological and chemical species in blood vessels and channels. In this study, number density distributions of particles and rigidized red blood cells (RBCs) in a microchannel whose size is comparable to the sizes of the particle and RBCs are measured. Measurements were conducted at several streamwise locations for suspensions of particles and RBCs with hematocrits of the order of 10% and particle sizes of 5 and 8 µm. Analysis of the migration and resulting concentration distribution of the particles and RBCs was conducted using a model that considers the particle–particle collision and fluid dynamic force. As the size of the microchannel is small, the wall effect on the collision and migration of the particles and RBCs was significant. The wall reduced the overlapping area of the particles in collision and their displacement after collision (mobility), which varied the number, location, and magnitude of the maximum peaks observed in the number density distribution. Furthermore, the rotational motion of the rigidized RBCs in the channel flow reduced the effective lengths of the overlapping area and displacement, whereas it produced additional migration at the wall. With these terms added in the model, the number density distributions of the particles and RBCs showed reasonable agreement with those of the measurement. Especially, the number of peaks and their location for the maximum values in the model and measurement matched well.