Paper Number
BL30                         My Program 

Session
Biomaterials, Bio-fluid Dynamics and Biorheology

Title
Suspension balance modelling of microcirculatory blood flows capturing cell free layer

Presentation Date and Time
October 21, 2025 (Tuesday) 4:05

Track / Room
Track 6 / Sweeney Ballroom C

Authors (Click on name to view author profile)

  1. Castillo Sanchez, Hugo A. (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering)
  2. Ortiz, Weston (University of New Mexico)
  3. Rao, Rekha R. (Sandia National Laboratories)
  4. Liu, Leo (FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Chemical and Biomedical Engineering)

Author and Affiliation Lines (in printed abstract book)
Hugo A. Castillo Sanchez1, Weston Ortiz2, Rekha R. Rao3 and Leo Liu1
1Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL 32311; 2University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87111; 3Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM 87123

Speaker / Presenter 
Castillo Sanchez, Hugo A.

Keywords
theoretical methods; computational methods; applied rheology; bio-fluid dynamics; biomaterials; biorheology; interfacial rheology; methods; non-Newtonian fluids; particualte systems; suspensions

Text of Abstract
Microcirculatory blood flow is featured by red blood cells (RBCs) migrating away from the vessel wall. This process leads to a cell-laden core and a near-wall cell-free layer (CFL), causing the Fåhræus-Lindquist effect, which is largely neglected by existing continuum models of blood flows. In this work, we develop a modified suspension balance model (SBM) for capturing the CFL in microcirculatory blood flows. Specifically, we introduce a lift-force flux term operated on the RBC phase to capture the hydrodynamic “lift” effect generated from the wall on the RBCs. Two different open-source solvers, OpenFOAM and Goma, are adopted to implement the new SBM formalisms for cross-validation. The results are validated against existing experiments and cellular blood flow simulations in terms of velocity and hematocrit profiles. It is shown that the new SBM can well capture the CFL and the Fåhræus-Lindquist effect in various hemorheological conditions. Blood flows through microvascular bifurcations are also explored to capture the hematocrit splitting rules governed by the Zweifach-Fung effects. The new SBM blood flow model allows computationally efficient, yet accurate capture of hemorheology in microcirculatory blood flows.