Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of Healthy and Defective Red Blood Cell Settling in Blood Plasma

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Hashemi ◽  
M. Rahnama ◽  
S. Jafari
Keyword(s):  
Blood Cell ◽  
Red Blood Cell ◽  
Lattice Boltzmann ◽  
Settling Velocity ◽  
Immersed Boundary ◽  
Immersed Boundary Methods ◽  
Cell Deformability ◽  
Lattice Boltzmann Simulation ◽  
Fluid Membrane ◽  
Boundary Methods

In this paper, an attempt has been made to study sedimentation of a red blood cell (RBC) in a plasma-filled tube numerically. Such behaviors are studied for a healthy and a defective cell which might be created due to human diseases, such as diabetes, sickle-cell anemia, and hereditary spherocytosis. Flow-induced deformation of RBC is obtained using finite-element method (FEM), while flow and fluid–membrane interaction are handled using lattice Boltzmann (LB) and immersed boundary methods (IBMs), respectively. The effects of RBC properties as well as its geometry and orientation on its sedimentation rate are investigated and discussed. The results show that decreasing frontal area of an RBC and/or increasing tube diameter results in a faster settling. Comparison of healthy and diabetic cells reveals that less cell deformability leads to slower settling. The simulation results show that the sicklelike and spherelike RBCs have lower settling velocity as compared with a biconcave discoid cell.

scholarly journals A Two-Dimensional Numerical Investigation of Transport of Malaria-Infected Red Blood Cells in Stenotic Microchannels

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tong Wang ◽  
Yong Tao ◽  
Uwitije Rongin ◽  
Zhongwen Xing
Keyword(s):  
Blood Cell ◽  
Red Blood Cells ◽  
Red Blood Cell ◽  
Blood Cells ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
Cell Stiffness ◽  
Immersed Boundary ◽  
Cell Aggregates ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Cell Deformability

The malaria-infected red blood cells experience a significant decrease in cell deformability and increase in cell membrane adhesion. Blood hemodynamics in microvessels is significantly affected by the alteration of the mechanical property as well as the aggregation of parasitized red blood cells. In this study, we aim to numerically study the connection between cell-level mechanobiological properties of human red blood cells and related malaria disease state by investigating the transport of multiple red blood cell aggregates passing through microchannels with symmetric stenosis. Effects of stenosis magnitude, aggregation strength, and cell deformability on cell rheology and flow characteristics were studied by a two-dimensional model using the fictitious domain-immersed boundary method. The results indicated that the motion and dissociation of red blood cell aggregates were influenced by these factors and the flow resistance increases with the increase of aggregating strength and cell stiffness. Further, the roughness of the velocity profile was enhanced by cell aggregation, which considerably affected the blood flow characteristics. The study may assist us in understanding cellular-level mechanisms in disease development.

AN EFFICIENT RED BLOOD CELL MODEL IN THE FRAME OF IB-LBM AND ITS APPLICATION

2013 ◽  
Vol 06 (01) ◽  
pp. 1250061 ◽  
Author(s):  
YUAN-QING XU ◽  
FANG-BAO TIAN ◽  
YU-LIN DENG
Keyword(s):  
Blood Cell ◽  
Red Blood Cell ◽  
Lattice Boltzmann ◽  
Cell Model ◽  
Interaction Strength ◽  
Cell Interaction ◽  
Immersed Boundary ◽  
Collocated Grid ◽  
Rbc Aggregation ◽  
Grid Points

A two-dimensional red blood cell (RBC) membrane model based on elastic and Euler–Bernoulli beam theories is introduced in the frame of immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM). The effect of the flexible membrane is handled by the immersed boundary method in which the stress exerted by the RBC on the ambient fluid is spread onto the collocated grid points near the boundary. The fluid dynamics is obtained by solving the discrete lattice Boltzmann equation. A "ghost shape", to which the RBC returns when restoring, is introduced by prescribing a bending force along the boundary. Numerical examples involving tumbling, tank-treading and RBC aggregation in shear flow and deformation and restoration in poiseuille flow are presented to verify the method and illustrate its efficiency. As an application of the present method, a ten-RBC colony being compressed through a stenotic microvessel is studied focusing the cell–cell interaction strength. Quantitative comparisons of the pressure and velocity on specified microvessel interfaces are made between each aggregation case. It reveals that the stronger aggregation may lead to more resistance against blood flow and result in higher pressure difference at the stenosis.

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