The influence of coagulation on the drying dynamics of blood pools.

Little is currently known about the importance of clotting during the drying of blood pools. While this is of little moment for droplets where drying occurs faster than contact-phase-induced clotting, clotting may significantly influence blood pools drying as it transform a liquid into a gel. To investigate this influence, we compare the drying of citrated and unmodified blood pools at constant haematocrit, showing large morphological differences during drying, both in the surface appearance, in the colour lightness, as well as in the generation and location of cracks.

Morphology of drying blood pools.

Often blood pools are found on crime scenes which may provide information concerning the events that took place on the scene. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the drying dynamics of blood pools. This study focuses on the drying process of blood pools to determine what relevant information can be obtained for the forensic application.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis: implementation of a fluid dynamic model for position determination of victims.

Bloodstain Pattern Analysis is a forensic discipline in which, among others, the position of victims can be determined at crime scenes on which blood has been shed. To determine where the blood source was investigators use a straight-line approximation for the trajectory, ignoring effects of gravity and drag and thus overestimating the height of the source. We determined how accurately the location of the origin can be estimated when including gravity and drag into the trajectory reconstruction.

Volume determination of fresh and dried bloodstains by means of optical coherence tomography.

The volume of bloodstains found on crime scenes may help forensic investigators reconstruct the location and kinematics of bloodletting events, as stain size, volume, and impact velocity are related. Optical coherence tomography was used as a method to determine the volume and volume ratio of dried and fresh bloodstains on both glass and irregular surfaces or deposited with an impact velocity. The volume of blood drops deposited on smooth glass surfaces was measured within a deviation of 2%.

Non-contact spectroscopic determination of large blood volume fractions in turbid media.

We report on a non-contact method to quantitatively determine blood volume fractions in turbid media by reflectance spectroscopy in the VIS/NIR spectral wavelength range. This method will be used for spectral analysis of tissue with large absorption coefficients and assist in age determination of bruises and bloodstains. First, a phantom set was constructed to determine the effective photon path length as a function of μ(a) and μ(s)' on phantoms with an albedo range: 0.