Theory to predict shear stress on cells in turbulent blood flow

Khandakar Niaz Morshed, David Bark, Marcio Forleo, Lakshmi Prasad Dasi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

58 Scopus citations

Abstract

Shear stress on blood cells and platelets transported in a turbulent flow dictates the fate and biological activity of these cells. We present a theoretical link between energy dissipation in turbulent flows to the shear stress that cells experience and show that for the case of physiological turbulent blood flow: (a) the Newtonian assumption is valid, (b) turbulent eddies are universal for the most complex of blood flow problems, and (c) shear stress distribution on turbulent blood flows is possibly universal. Further we resolve a long standing inconsistency in hemolysis between laminar and turbulent flow using the theoretical framework. This work demonstrates that energy dissipation as opposed to bulk shear stress in laminar or turbulent blood flow dictates local mechanical environment of blood cells and platelets universally.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere105357
JournalPloS one
Volume9
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 29 2014

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