Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Dilute Red Blood Cell Suspensions in Low-Inertia Microchannel Flow.

ABSTRACT: Microfluidic technologies are commonly used for the manipulation of red blood cell (RBC) suspensions and analyses of flow-mediated biomechanics. To enhance the performance of microfluidic devices, understanding the dynamics of the suspensions processed within is crucial. We report novel, to our knowledge, aspects of the spatiotemporal dynamics of RBC suspensions flowing through a typical microchannel at low Reynolds number. Through experiments with dilute RBC suspensions, we find an off-center two-peak (OCTP) profile of cells contrary to the centralized distribution commonly reported for low-inertia flows. This is reminiscent of the well-known "tubular pinch effect," which arises from inertial effects. However, given the conditions of negligible inertia in our experiments, an alternative e

SUBMITTER: Zhou Q 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7231897 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature