Axial and Nonaxial Migration of Red Blood Cells in a Microtube

Human red blood cells (RBCs) are subjected to high viscous shear stress, especially during microcirculation, resulting in stable deformed shapes such as parachute or slipper shape. Those unique deformed RBC shapes, accompanied with axial or nonaxial migration, cannot be fully described according to traditional knowledge about lateral movement of deformable spherical particles. Although several experimental and numerical studies have investigated RBC behavior in microchannels with similar diameters as RBCs, the detailed mechanical characteristics of RBC lateral movement—in particular, regarding the relationship between stable deformed shapes, equilibrium radial RBC position, and membrane load—has not yet been fully described. Thus, we numerically investigated the behavior of single RBCs with radii of 4 μm in a circular microchannel with diameters of 15 μm. Flow was assumed to be almost inertialess. The problem was characterized by the capillary number, which is the ratio between fluid viscous force and membrane elastic force. The power (or energy dissipation) associated with membrane deformations was introduced to quantify the state of membrane loads. Simulations were performed with different capillary numbers, viscosity ratios of the internal to external fluids of RBCs, and initial RBC centroid positions. Our numerical results demonstrated that axial or nonaxial migration of RBC depended on the stable deformed RBC shapes, and the equilibrium radial position of the RBC centroid correlated well with energy expenditure associated with membrane deformations.

Numerical Study of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics in a Cone-Column Combined Heat Sink

Temperature has a great influence on the normal operation and service life of high-power electronic components. To cope with the increasingly severe heat problems in integrated circuits, an enhanced heat transfer factor E is introduced to evaluate the comprehensive heat transfer performance of microchannel heat sinks (MCHS). The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to numerically study the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics in the cone-column combined heat sink. The research results obtained the velocity field and pressure field distribution of the heat sink structure in the range of 100 ≤ Re ≤ 700. When Re changes, the change law of pressure drop ΔP, friction factor f, average Nussel number Nuave, average substrate temperature T, and enhanced heat transfer factor E, are compared with the circular MCHS. The results show that the uniform arrangement of the cones inside the cone-column combined heat sink can change the flow state of the cooling medium in the microchannel and enhance the heat transfer. In the range of 100 ≤ Re ≤ 700, the base temperature of the cone-column combined heat sink is always lower than the base temperature of the circular MCHS, and the average Nusselt number Nuave is as high as 2.13 times that of the circular microchannel. The enhanced heat factor E is 1.75 times that of the circular MCHS, indicating that the comprehensive heat transfer performance of the cone-column combined heat sink is significantly better than that of the circular microchannel.