Network Hemodynamics: A Computational Study of Cellular Blood Flow and Particulate Transport in Microvascular Capillary Networks

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CBET - 1604308PI: Bagchi, ProsenjitThis award provides for support for numerical simulations and microfluidics-based experiments to study blood flow in small vessels and to examine the distribution of red blood cells among various branches of the vascular tree. Although this is a long-standing problem, the combination of advanced computations and experiments will provide new insights to help explain observations reported in the literature over decades. The numerical computations will examine the partitioning of red cells at vessel bifurcations where a vessel splits into two vessels and at locations where vessels recombine. The simulations will also examine time-dependent flow variations that are intrinsic to flow through vessel networks. Results from simulations will be compared with experiments of blood flow through microfluidic channels and networks of channels. The results of the project will be useful to scientists and engineers who work in areas such as tissue engineering, intravenous drug delivery, and in the design of blood-handling devices. The research will be incorporated into a summer course for high-school students titled "Computational Methods in Science and Engineering." Undergraduates, especially those from underrepresented groups, will be recruited to participate in the research.A three-dimensional, multiscale direct numerical simulation will be developed for deformable, poly-disperse blood cells flowing through networks of bifurcating, merging, and tortuous vessels. The model will include evolving cellular interfaces governed by hyper-viscoelastic constitutive laws and intricate stationary boundaries defined by the network architecture. The overall model will combine an immersed boundary method, a finite element method for interface deformation and a stochastic Monte-Carlo method for coarse-graining molecular interactions. The model will be validated by comparison with experiments of blood flow in networks of microfluidic channels. These tools will be used to examine the influence of network architecture on the distribution of blood cells, the network flow resistance, and the growth of self-sustained flow oscillations. The model will also be used to examine the influence of network architecture on the formation of blood clots and on deposition of drug-bearing particles. The results of this project will provide an organ-scale model of blood flow that retains cellular-scale dynamics.