2010/01/29 by Timm Krüger, Mohammad A. Fallah, Krüger, Timm +9
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1001.5389
11 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables
arxiv created 2010/01/29 · arxiv updated 2010/02/26
We experimentally and numerically investigate the flow of a Newtonian fluid through a constricted geometry for Reynolds numbers in the range 0.1 - 100. The major aim is to study non-linear inertia effects at larger Reynolds numbers (>10) on the shear stress evolution in the fluid. This is of particular importance for blood flow as some biophysical processes in blood are sensitive to shear stresses, e.g., the initialization of blood clotting. We employ the lattice Boltzmann method for the simulations. The conclusion of the predictions is that the peak value of shear stress in the constriction grows disproportionally fast with the Reynolds number which leads to a non-linear shear stress accumulation. As a consequence, the combination of constricted blood vessel geometries and large Reynolds numbers may increase the risk of undesired blood clotting.