Affiliations: GEOLEP-ICARE-ENAC, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland | Département de mathématiques et de statistique, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Robert G. Owens, Département de mathématiques et de statistique, Université de Montréal, CP 6128 succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal QC H3C 3J7, Canada. Tel.: +1 514 343 2315; Fax: +1 514 343 5700; E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract: In the present paper we use a new constitutive equation for whole human blood [R.G. Owens, A new microstructure-based constitutive model for human blood, J. Non-Newtonian Fluid Mech. (2006), to appear] to investigate the steady, oscillatory and pulsatile flow of blood in a straight, rigid walled tube at modest Womersley numbers. Comparisons are made with the experimental results of Thurston [Elastic effects in pulsatile blood flow, Microvasc. Res. 9 (1975), 145–157] for the pressure drop per unit length against volume flow rate and oscillatory flow rate amplitude. Agreement in all cases is very good. In the presentation of the numerical and experimental results we discuss the microstructural changes in the blood that account for its rheological behaviour in this simple class of flows. In this context, the concept of an apparent complex viscosity proves to be useful.
