A Theoretical Model for Blood Flow in Small Vessels

A two-fluid model consisting of a core region of suspension of all the erythrocytes (particles) in plasma (fluid) assumed to be a particle-fluid mixture and a peripheral layer of cell-free plasma (Newtonian fluid), has been proposed to represent blood flow in small diameter tubes. The analytical results obtained in the proposed model for effective viscosity, velocity profiles and flow rate have been evaluated numerically for various values of the parameters available from published works. Quantitative comparison has shown that present model suitability represents blood flow at hematocrit (less than or equal to 40%) and in vessels up to 70 micrometers in diameter. Using experimental values of the parameters, the flow rate for normal and diseased blood has been computed and compared with corresponding values obtained from a well known experimentally tested model in the literature