Characteristics of blood flow resistance under transverse vibration: red blood cell suspension in Dextran-40.

Vibration under shear flow causes the reduction of flow resistance for shear-thinning fluids. The present study investigates the effect of vibration on the flow resistance of a nonaggregating red blood cell (RBC) suspension with a newly designed pressure-scanning capillary viscometer (PSCV). The PSCV was originally designed to measure non-Newtonian viscosity continuously over a range of shear rates at a time, which was slightly modified and used for the present study. Low-frequency vibration was applied perpendicular to the direction of the flow. The effect of the transverse vibration was investigated for both Newtonian fluids and nonaggregating RBC suspensions. The experimental results showed that the vibration had no effect on the flow resistance of the Newtonian fluids. However, the vibration caused a reduction of the flow resistance of the RBC suspension. The reduction of the flow resistance was strongly dependent on both frequency and amplitude of vibration.