A minimal continuum model of clogging in spatio-temporally varying channels #

Anushka Herale, Duncan Hewitt, Philip Pearce

10:50 Wednesday in 3Q68.

Part of the Blood and blood vessels session.

Abstract #

Particle suspensions in confined geometries exhibit rich dynamics, including flowing, jamming, and clogging. Such effects can be an important determinant of function in blood flow affected by malaria or sickle cell disease, in which the properties of red blood cells are perturbed under certain conditions. The aim of this talk is to shed light on the macroscopic dynamics of blood in the context of these diseases. To this end, we present a continuum two-phase model of particle suspensions that accounts for spatio-temporally varying material properties. The model comprises a continuous particle phase which advects with flow and has material properties dependent on the particle fraction, and a suspending fluid which flows through the particle phase obeying Darcy’s law. We solve the system using the method of characteristics and simulate the evolution of an initially uniform particle density. We find that varying material properties and varying geometry can induce heterogeneity in particle volume fraction. These results suggest that spatial variation in oxygen tension can contribute to clogging of the blood in sickle cell disease.