Numerical simulation of lateral migration of red blood cells in Poiseuille flows

A spring model is applied to simulate the skeleton structure of the red blood cell (RBC) membrane and to study the RBC rheology in two‐dimensional Poiseuille flows using an immersed boundary method. The lateral migration properties of the cells in Poiseuille flows have been investigated. The simulation results show that the rate of migration toward the center of the channel depends on the swelling ratio and the deformability of the cells. We have also combined the above methodology with a fictitious domain method to study the motion of RBCs in a two‐dimensional micro‐channel with a constriction with an application to blood plasma separation. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.