MODELING AND ANALYSIS OF BLOOD FLOW IN HUMAN CIRCULATORY SYSTEM

The blood flow in human system plays an important role to regulate temperature distribution, remove waste and carbon dioxide and deliver oxygen and nutrients to the cells. A human body contains approximate 5 litres of blood and human blood is a suspension of formed elements in liquid called plasma. Plasma is made of mainly water (92%). The formed elements consist of red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes) and platelets (thrombocytes). Red cells are about 57% of the total cell volume and its concentration in human blood called hematocrit is normally about 42-45% by volume. The human circulatory system consists of a complex network of blood vessels and performs important functions (reproductory, nutritive, excretory, protective and regulatory) in the human body. The blood vessels comprise of arteries, veins, capillaries and sinusoids. Blood gets reduced in the tissues and oxygenated in the lungs. Consequently it has to pass alternatively through lungs and tissues doing opposite functions at these two places. It has been confirmed by so many researchers theoretically and experimentally that blood does not obey the Newtonian law [1]-[4]. Therefore, several non-Newtonian models have been proposed from time to time and some of these are listed below. (i) Power-law fluid model This is found to hold good for strain rates between 5 and 200 sec -1, with n having a value between 0.68 and 0.80. It is found that this equation does not hold over more than two decades of shear rates. Therefore this equation has limited use for application to flow analysis in capillary tubes or vessels unless shear rates in the tube are definitely within the experimental range measured with the viscometer [3],[5].

(ii)

Cassons fluid model

Where a and b are constants. Cassons equation is based on behaviour on the behaviour of mutually attractive subjected to disruptive forces such that particle group size is a function of shear rate. In addition, the yield stress or shear strength of the suspension must be exceeded before the structure can be broken and flow initiated [6]. It has been shown that the shear- stress behaviour of red cell suspensions can be expressed by this equation over a wide range of cell concentrations and shear rates 1 to 10000 sec-1. (iii) HerschelBulkley fluid model

HerschelBulkley fluid equation is preferred to power law or Bingham relationship because it results is more accurate models of rheological behaviour when adequate experimental data are available [7].

As the cardiovascular disease are closely related to blood flow characteristics such as blood flow rate and pressure in vessels accurate prediction of blood flow characteristics in an efficient way has been an important research issue. In the recent past [1],[2],[4],[5],[10],[11] quite a good number of theoretical and experimental investigations related to blood flow in arteries in the presence of stenosis has been carried out. The development of gradual stenosis in the arteries limits oxygen transport to tissues and dependent organs. Blood flow through membranes occurs in a number of physiological process and particularly the function of kidney is related to the process of ultra-filtration and diffusion [29]. In case of renal failure the hemodialysis is carried out to purify the blood. Ultimately, a kidney transplant may be carried out for the patient. The

supply of oxygen to living tissues cells of skeletal muscle lungs or brain for these inspirations is a vital function of the human body. The oxygen is supplied through the process of dissociation of oxygen from the oxy-hemoglobin of red cells into blood plasma, the diffusion in the blood plasma, its transport across the capillary walls and finally its diffusion through the tissue cells [5],[14],[16],[17]. Applied mathematicians approaching the problem of analyzing the circulatory system are forced in general with considering the unsteady flow of non-Newtonian viscous.

The Methods: During the past several decades, many numerical methods have been introduced for approximate solutions of blood flow problems with respect to microcirculation [30]. The finite difference method (FDM), finite volume method (FVM) and finite element method (FEM) [6], [12] and the most developed and widely used numerical methods. In solving these fluid problems FDM is probably the oldest method due to easy and efficient implementation.

Future plan: We intend to study problems related to flow of blood in Human Circulatory System by modeling the blood as non-Newtonian fluid. Numerical Methods (FDM, FEM, FVM etc.) will be used to solve these fluid problems.