Particulate nature of blood determines macroscopic rheology: a 2-D lattice Boltzmann analysis

¹ Massachusetts General Hospital

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lance{at}steele.mgh.harvard.edu.

Submitted on August 19, 2004
Revised on September 21, 2004
Accepted on 14 December 2004

	Abstract

Historically, predicting macroscopic blood flow characteristics such as viscosity has been an empirical process due to the difficulty in rigorously including the particulate nature of blood in a mathematical representation of blood rheology. Using a 2-D lattice Boltzmann approach, we have simulated the flow of red blood cells in a blood vessel in order to estimate flow resistance at various hematocrits and vessel diameters. By including white blood cells (WBCs) in the flow, we also calculate the increase in resistance due to white cell rolling and adhesion. The model considers the blood as a suspension of particles in plasma, accounting for cell-cell and cell-wall interactions in order to predict macroscopic blood rheology. The model is able to reproduce the Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect, i.e. the increase in relative apparent viscosity as tube size increases, and the Fahraeus effect, i.e. tube hematocrit is lower than discharge hematocrit. In addition, the model allows direct assessment of the effect of WBCs on blood flow in the microvasculature, reproducing the dramatic increases in flow resistance as WBCs enter short capillary segments. This powerful and flexible model can be used to predict blood flow properties in any vessel geometry and with any blood composition.

Key Words: Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect, apparent viscosity, blood rheology, lattice Boltzmann, tube flow

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