A DLM/FD/IB Method for Simulating Compound Cell Interacting with Red Blood Cells in a Microchannel

In this article, a computational model and related methodologies have been tested for simulating the motion of a malaria infected red blood cell (iRBC for short) in Poiseuille flow at low Reynolds numbers. Besides the deformability of the red blood cell membrane, the migration of a neutrally buoyant particle (used to model the malaria parasite inside the membrane) is another factor to determine the iRBC motion. Typically an iRBC oscillates in a Poiseuille flow due to the competition between these two factors. The interaction of an iRBC and several RBCs in a narrow channel shows that, at lower flow speed, the iRBC can be easily pushed toward the wall and stay there to block the channel. But, at higher flow speed, RBCs and iRBC stay in the central region of the channel since their migrations are dominated by the motion of the RBC membrane.     

Numerical Simulation of Red Blood Cell Suspensions Behind a Moving Interface in a Capillary

Computational modeling and simulation are presented on the motion of red blood cells behind a moving interface in a capillary. The methodology is based on an immersed boundary method and the skeleton structure of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane is modeled as a spring network. As by the nature of the problem, the computational domain is moving with either a designated RBC or an interface in an infinitely long two-dimensional channel with an undisturbed flow field in front of the computational domain. The tanking-treading and the inclination angle of a cell in a simple shear flow are briefly discussed for the validation purpose. We then present and discuss the results of the motion of red blood cells behind a moving interface in a capillary, which show that the RBCs with higher velocity than the interface speed form a concentrated slug behind the moving interface.     

Modeling the Sedimentation of Red Blood Cells in Flow under Strong External Magnetic Body Force Using a Lattice Boltzmann Fictitious Domain Method

Experimental observations show that a strong magnetic field has a dramatic influence on the sedimentation of RBCs, which motivates us to model the sedimentation of red blood cell (RBC) under strong external magnetic body force. To model the sedimentation of a RBC in a square duct and a circular pipe, a recently developed technique derived from the lattice Boltzmann and the distributed Lagrange multiplier/fictitious domain methods (LBM-DLM/FD) is extended to employ the mesoscopic network model for simulations of the sedimentation of a RBC in flow. The flow is simulated by the LBM with a strong magnetic body force, while the network model is used for modeling RBC deformation. The fluid-RBC interactions are enforced by the Lagrange multiplier. The sedimentation of RBC in a square duct and a circular pipe is simulated, which demonstrates the developed method's capability to model the sedimentation of RBCs in various flows. Numerical results illustrate that the terminal settling velocity increases incrementally with the exerted body force. The deformation of RBC has a significant effect on the terminal settling velocity due to the change in the frontal area. The larger the exerted force, the smaller the frontal area and the larger the RBC deformation become. Additionally, the wall effect on the motion and deformation of RBC is also investigated.     

Numerical investigation of blood flow. Part I: In microvessel bifurcations

In some diseases there is a focal pattern of velocity in regions of bifurcation, and thus the dynamics of bifurcation has been investigated in this work. A computational model of blood flow through branching geometries has been used to investigate the influence of bifurcation on blood flow distribution. The flow analysis applies the time-dependent, three-dimensional, incompressible Navier–Stokes equations for Newtonian fluids. The governing equations of mass and momentum conservation were solved to calculate the pressure and velocity fields. Movement of blood flow from an arteriole to a venule via a capillary has been simulated using the volume of fluid (VOF) method. The proposed simulation method would be a useful tool in understanding the hydrodynamics of blood flow where the interaction between the RBC deformation and blood flow movement is important. Discrete particle simulation has been used to simulate the blood flow in a bifurcation with solid and fluid particles. The fluid particle method allows for modeling the plasma as a particle ensemble, where each particle represents a collective unit of fluid, which is defined by its mass, moment of inertia, and translational and angular momenta. These kinds of simulations open a new way for modeling the dynamics of complex, viscoelastic fluids at the micro-scale, where both liquid and solid phases are treated with discrete particles.     

A corrected smoothed particle hydrodynamics method for solving transient viscoelastic fluid flows

In this work, a corrected smoothed particle hydrodynamics (CSPH) method is proposed and extended to the numerical simulation of transient viscoelastic fluid flows due to that its approximation accuracy in solving the Navier–Stokes equations is higher than that of the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, especially near the boundary of the domain. The CSPH approach comes with the idea of combining the SPH approximation for the interior particles with the modified smoothed particle hydrodynamics (MSPH) method for the exterior particles, this is because that the later method has higher accuracy than the SPH method although it also needs more computational cost. In order to show the validity of CSPH method to simulate unsteady viscoelastic flows problems, the planar shear flow problems, including transient Poiseuille, Couette flow and transient combined Poiseuille and Couette flow for the Oldroyd-B fluid are solved and compared with the analytical and SPH results. Subsequently, the general viscoelastic fluid based on the eXtended Pom–Pom (XPP) model is numerically investigated and the viscoelastic free surface phenomena of impacting drop are simulated by the CSPH for its extended application and the purpose of illustrating the ability of the proposed method. The numerical results are presented and compared with available solutions, which shows a very good agreement. All the numerical results show the higher accuracy and better stability of the CSPH than the SPH, especially for larger Weissenberg numbers.     

Red Blood Cell Transfusion Safety: Probabilistic Risk Assessment and Cost/ Benefits of Risk Reduction Strategies

While transfusion safety, particularly with respect to transfusion-transmitted infectious diseases, has improved dramatically over the past several decades, progress in other clinical processes of blood product transfusion continue with highly variable practices and human errors that contribute to adverse outcomes. In this paper, we study the adverse outcome risk in red blood cell (RBC) transfusion in the United States using Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA). PRA allows us to map, in a comprehensive manner, the various types of events that may contribute to an adverse outcome, including socio-technical factors such as the risk coming from human error; and allows us to formalize the logical relationships among those events and the adverse outcome risk. We utilize the PRA model to assess the risk to the patient from RBC transfusion in the United States, to identify the major risk points in the transfusion process, and to evaluate the costs and benefits of several risk reduction strategies. Our data come from published studies in the medical literature. We find that the risk of a potentially severe outcome (e.g., mortality, major injury or other serious long-term consequences, a life threatening incident) from RBC transfusion lies in the interval [10.4327,511.2] per 100,000 units of RBC transfused, with a point estimate of 25.4527. The leading causes of severe outcomes include circulatory overload and bacterial infection. Acute hemolytic reactions, which are mainly caused by erroneous administration of the blood, also contribute significantly to severe outcomes of transfusion. Interestingly, our analysis indicates that an intervention that is targeted at reducing the risk of the erroneous administration of blood (through training programs or technology investments) has a higher potential impact in reducing the severe outcome risk from RBC transfusion than additional screening to further reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted viral infections, of HIV 1-2, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, which the lay public fears most. Furthermore, such an error reduction program will be more cost-effective than the additional screening of donated blood. Our study provides guidelines for public policy to improve the safety of RBC transfusion in the United States.     

An immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann approach to study the dynamics of elastic membranes in viscous shear flows

A combined immersed boundary–lattice Boltzmann approach is used to simulate the dynamics of elastic membrane immersed in a viscous incompressible flow. The lattice Boltzmann method is utilized to solve the flow field on a regular Eulerian grid, while the immersed boundary method is employed to incorporate the fluid–membrane interaction with a Lagrangian representation of the deformable immersed boundary. The distinct feature of the method used here is to employ the combination of simple Peskin's IBM and standard LBM. In order to obtain more accurate and truthful solutions, however, a non-uniform distribution of Lagrangian points and a modified Dirac delta function are used. Two test cases are presented. In the first case, we consider a vesicle suspended in a simple shear flow commonly known as tank-treading motion. The computed results were compared with experiments, which showed reasonably good agreement. For the second test case, we consider individual healthy (soft) and sick (stiff) RBCs suspended in a shear flow. The simulation results demonstrated that elastic deformation plays an important role in overall RBC motions characterized as tank-treading and tumbling motions, in which the natural state of the elastic membrane is an essential consideration. In addition, the results confirm that the combination of the immersed boundary and lattice Boltzmann methods permits the simulation of the complex biological phenomena.     

Modeling unsteady flow characteristics using smoothed particle hydrodynamics

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method has been extensively used to simulate unsteady free surface flows. The works dedicated to simulation of unsteady internal flows have been generally performed to study the transient start up of steady flows under constant driving forces and for low Reynolds number regimes. However, most of the fluid flow phenomena are unsteady by nature and at moderate to high Reynolds numbers. In this study, first a benchmark case (transient Poiseuille flow) is simulated to evaluate the ability of SPH to simulate internal transient flows at low and moderate Reynolds numbers (Re = 0.05, 500 and 1500). For this benchmark case, the performance of the two most commonly used formulations for viscous term modeling is investigated, as well as the effect of using the XSPH variant. Some points regarding using the symmetric form for pressure gradient modeling are also briefly discussed. Then, the application of SPH is extended to oscillating flows imposed by oscillating body force (Womersley type flow) and oscillating moving boundary (Stokes’ second problem) at different frequencies and amplitudes. There is a very good agreement between SPH results and exact solution even if there is a large phase lag between the oscillating pressure difference and moving boundary and the movement of the SPH particles generated. Finally, a modified formulation for wall shear stress calculations is suggested and verified against exact solutions. In all presented cases, the spatial convergence analysis is performed.     

Effects of Poiseuille flow on peristaltic transport of a particulate suspension

The problem of peristaltic transport induced by sinusoidal waves of a particle-fluid mixture in the presence of a Poiseuille flow, is analysed. The governing equations of motion resulting from the Navier-Stokes equations for both the fluid and particle phases are solved and closed form solutions are obtained for limiting values of Reynolds number, wave number and the Poiseuille flow parameter while the method of Frobenius series solution is used for the general case. It is found that the mean flow is strongly dependent on the Poiseuille flow parameter. The effects of particle concentration in the fluid is well discharged throughout the analysis and the results are compared with the other studies in the literature.     

Modeling incompressible flows using a finite particle method

This paper describes the applications of a finite particle method (FPM) to modeling incompressible flow problems. FPM is a meshfree particle method in which the approximation of a field variable and its derivatives can be simultaneously obtained through solving a pointwise matrix equation. A set of basis functions is employed to obtain the coefficient matrix through a sequence of transformations. The finite particle method can be used to discretize the Navier–Stokes equation that governs fluid flows. The incompressible flows are modeled as slightly compressible via specially selected equations of state. Four numerical examples including the classic Poiseuille flow, Couette flow, shear driven cavity and a dam collapsing problem are presented with comparisons to other sources. The numerical examples demonstrate that FPM is a very attractive alternative for simulating incompressible flows, especially those with free surfaces, moving interfaces or deformable boundaries.     

Use of Adomian decomposition method in the study of parallel plate flow of a third grade fluid

In this paper, Adomian’s decomposition method is used to solve non-linear differential equations which arise in fluid dynamics. We study basic flow problems of a third grade non-Newtonian fluid between two parallel plates separated by a finite distance. The technique of Adomian decomposition is successfully applied to study the problem of a non-Newtonian plane Couette flow, fully developed plane Poiseuille flow and plane Couette–Poiseuille flow. The results obtained show the reliability and efficiency of this analytical method. Numerical solutions are also obtained by solving non-linear ordinary differential equations using Chebyshev spectral method. We present a comparative study between the analytical solutions and numerical solutions. The analytical results are found to be in good agreement with numerical solutions which reveals the effectiveness and convenience of the Adomian decomposition method.     

Entropy generation under the effect of suction/injection

This work investigates entropy generation in a steady flow of viscous incompressible fluids between two infinite parallel porous plates. The fluid temperature variation is due to asymmetric heating of the porous plates as well as viscous dissipation. Two different physical situations are discussed with their entropy generation profiles: (i) Couette flow with suction/injection and (ii) pressure-driven Poiseuille flow with suction/injection. In each case, closed form expressions for entropy generation number and Bejan number are derived in dimensionless form by using the expressions for velocity and temperature which are derived by solving the resulting momentum and energy equations by the method of undetermined coefficient. The effect of the governing parameters on velocity, temperature, entropy generation and Bejan number are extensively discussed with the help of graphs. It is interesting to remark that entropy generation number increases with suction on one porous plate while it decreases on the other porous plate with injection.     

Removal of malaria-infected red blood cells using magnetic cell separators: A computational study

High gradient magnetic field separators have been widely used in a variety of biological applications. Recently, the use of magnetic separators to remove malaria-infected red blood cells (pRBCs) from blood circulation in patients with severe malaria has been proposed in a dialysis-like treatment. The capture efficiency of this process depends on many interrelated design variables and constraints such as magnetic pole array pitch, chamber height, and flow rate. In this paper, we model the malaria-infected RBCs (pRBCs) as paramagnetic particles suspended in a Newtonian fluid. Trajectories of the infected cells are numerically calculated inside a micro-channel exposed to a periodic magnetic field gradient. First-order stiff ordinary differential equations (ODEs) governing the trajectory of particles under periodic magnetic fields due to an array of wires are solved numerically using the 1st to 5th order adaptive step Runge-Kutta solver. The numerical experiments show that in order to achieve a capture efficiency of 99% for the pRBCs it is required to have a longer length than 80 mm; this implies that in principle, using optimization techniques the length could be adjusted, i.e., shortened to achieve 99% capture efficiency of the pRBCs.     

Modeling the migration of cancer cells in the bloodstream

We model the migration of cancer cells that have broken away from a tumor and are circulating in the bloodstream. Using the immersed boundary method and culling from literature the material properties of cancer cells, we simulate how cells deform as a function of the flow properties of the bloodstream as well as the adhesive properties between the cancer cells and the endothelial cells of the bloodstream. We also simulate the migration characteristics as a function of the migrating cell density. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Thermodynamics / turbulence analogy modelling dissipating molecular gas flows for high Knudsen numbers

Modelling micro channel flows momentum and heat diffusion / convection are recent parameters modelling the molecule velocity distribution. Macroscopic models describe velocity and energy / enthalpie with integrals of mass increments. Using microscopic models motion and forces of a molecular flow have to be computed by models of physical properties, whose are described by statistical power moments of the molecule velocity. Therefore dilute flows have to be investigated in small channels with a mean free path length of molecules higher than the channel width of the the micro channel itself (λ₀≥H₀). Modelling this process by a continuous flow the boundary conditions have to be modified (e.g. [6]). The present model uses the statistical approximation of the molecule velocity distribution to simulate the behaviour of this discrete flow with a weighted averaged molecule velocity ∼ξ_i, its standard deviation σ and the characterisic molecule collision rate z. The number density N per volume V near one position is used for the weighting factor averaging method describing the mean molecule velocity. The present model is validated computing Poiseuille and Couette flows with different Knudsen numbers. Showing the advantages of the present model the simulation results are compared with simulation results of the wall–distance depending diffusivity model of Lockerby and Reese [4] and BGK results of a Lattice–Boltzmann simulation. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

一神非定常振荡流的稳定性分析

本文分析了一种非定常振荡的不稳定性问题.其特点是.应用偏微分方程特征理论以及O-S方程特征值的展开,求解扰动波的相函数而不是预先给定扰动波的波动形式.本文研究平面Poiseuille流与其垂向振荡流的组合流动系统.对于连续振荡源导致的波包演化,该系统存在不稳定性.     

An immersed-boundary method for compressible viscous flows and its application in the gas-kinetic BGK scheme

An immersed-boundary (IB) method is proposed and applied in the gas-kinetic BGK scheme to simulate incompressible and compressible viscous flows with complex stationary and moving boundaries on stationary Cartesian grids. In this method the ghost-cell technique is used to satisfy the boundary condition on the immersed boundary. A novel idea, “local boundary determination”, is put forward to identify the ghost cells, each of which may have several different ghost-cell constructions corresponding to different boundary segments. Thus, the singular behavior of the ghost cell is eliminated. Furthermore, the so-called “fresh-cell” problem that occurs when implementing the IB method in a moving-boundary simulation is resolved by a simple temporal extrapolation. The method is first applied in the gas-kinetic BGK scheme to simulate the Taylor–Couette flow, wherein the second-order spatial accuracy of the method is validated and the “super-convergence” of the BGK scheme is observed. After that the flow between a circular cylinder and a square cylinder is used as a test case to showcase the advantage of this method in resolving the singularity problem. Then the supersonic flow around a stationary cylinder, the incompressible flow around an oscillating cylinder and the compressible flow around a moving airfoil are simulated to verify that this method can be used to simulate compressible flows and handle moving boundaries. These numerical tests demonstrate the good performance of the proposed immersed-boundary method for the study of incompressible/compressible flow problems with complex stationary/moving boundaries.     

Numerical simulation of a flexible fiber deformation in a viscous flow by the immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method

In this paper, deformation of a mass-less elastic fiber with a fixed end, immersed in a two-dimensional viscous channel flow, is simulated numerically. The lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to solve the Newtonian flow field and the immersed-boundary method (IBM) is employed to simulate the deformation of the flexible fiber interacting with the flow. The results of this unsteady simulation including fiber deformation, fluid velocity field, and variations of the fiber length are depicted in different time-steps through the simulation time. Similar trends are observed in plots representing length change of fibers with different values of stretching constant. Also, the numerical solution reaches a steady state equivalent to the fluid channel flow over a flat plate.