Discrete phase model of blood flow in a roughness microchannel simulating the formation of pseudointima.

Purpose: The goal of the present study was the development of discrete phase model to simulate the phenomenon of backfilling a morphologically complex surface by red blood cells (RBCs) in a flow microchannel and to anticipate the conditions of forming a pseudointima. The objective of the experimental studies that inspired the development of the simulation was to create a surface that stimulates the formation of the pseudointima layer.

Methods: The finite volume method (FVM) and discrete particle method (DPM) were applied to develop the target model. In addition, a mixture model and a roughness model of bottom layer were tested in the present study to show their influence on simulation the phenomenon of backfilling a morphologically complex surface by RBCs in a flow microchannel.

Results: Numerical models were developed including: a) FVM models to compare the effect of applying boundary conditions with/without roughness and cubes, as well as the analysis of their influence on blood velocity and shear stress; b) mixture models to compare the effect of applying different boundary conditions and cubes on computed results; c) DPM models to compare the effect of applying and not applying roughness as a boundary condition; d) DPM models with a morphologically complex surface and RBCs collisions to present RBCs concentration, velocity and time distributions during flow in a channel.

Conclusions: The analysis carried out for the developed numerical models indicates that DPM model with cubes computes the best results. It also shows the backfilling of a morphologically complex surface of the bottom microchannel with RBCs.