BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C.

Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

Lecture 1: What is biotransport? Stresses. Fluid properties.

Continuum concept. Units.

What is biotransport?: This course is concerned with fluid mechanics,

mass transfer and heat transfer.
• Fluid mechanics is the study of how fluid moves and flows in
response to applied forces.
• Mass transfer is the study of how substances (“mass”) move in solid,
liquid or gaseous media. In biotransport we are mostly concerned
with transport in liquid or gaseous media. Typically we want to
know how quickly mass can be transferred from one region to
another, or what the resulting concentration in a region will be due
to a given rate of transport.
• Heat transfer is the study of how energy (including heat) is
transported. We will see that there is a close analogy between the
transport of heat and mass.

Why are transport processes important in the biological context?

Generally speaking, homeostasis and normal physiological function
requires substances to be in the right places at the right concentrations.
Here are some examples over a range of length scales:
1. The concentration of calcium in the cytoplasm of the cell is closely
regulated, because calcium is an important signalling molecule. In
muscle cells, calcium is stored in a membrane-bound organelle
called the endoplasmic reticulum. When the muscle cell receives a
signal to contract, calcium is released from the endoplasmic
reticulum and spreads inside the cell, triggering contraction. Shortly
afterwards, the cell begins to actively sequester the free calcium ion,
causing the contraction to end. This entire process depends critically
on the transport of calcium within the cell.
2. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is a very large molecular complex that
helps transport cholesterol from the liver to target tissues.
Cholesterol is hydrophobic, so is transported more efficiently if it is
“protected” by a protein that shields its hydrophobic nature.
Cholesterol is used by cells as a basic building block for hydrophobic
molecules, e.g. the cell membrane. Consider the fate of a LDL
complex that is produced in the liver: it enters the blood stream,
and is carried by flowing blood throughout the body. Eventually, it
can do one of two things: it can bind to a specific receptor on an
endothelial cell, or it can “leak” between two endothelial cells and
be carried down into the deeper aspects of the vessel wall.
(Endothelial cells line all blood-contacting surfaces in the body, and
provide a barrier between blood and the surrounding tissues.) If too
much of it leaks into the vessel wall, an inflammatory reaction can
be triggered that eventually leads to thickening of the artery wall
and can block off the artery. This is the process known as
atherosclerosis.

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

3. The lungs are highly sophisticated mass transfer devices, whose

primary job is to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide with the
blood. Internally, the lung consists of a series of ever-finer
branching tubes that end in structures known as alveoli. Blood flows
in capillaries that lie on the surface of the alveoli, and there is a
continual transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide across the walls of
these capillaries. There is also a continual transport of oxygen from
the outside air, down the tubes to the alveoli, and a transport of
CO2 in the opposite direction.

Mass can be transported by two fundamental processes: diffusion and

convection.
• Diffusion is a passive process that relies on random collisions
between a transported molecule and the solvent or gas that
surrounds it. For example, if you very gently put a drop of cream
into a still cup of coffee you will see it slowly spread out, even
though you are not stirring the coffee. This is due to water
molecules in the coffee crashing into the cream and causing the
molecules of cream to spread within the coffee.

One of the characteristic features of diffusion is that the time t it

takes for a molecule to be transported a distance L is given by



~

where D is known as the diffusion coefficient. The diffusion
coefficient depends on both the species being transported and the
material that it is being transported in, and is a measure of how
quickly the substance can diffuse (see e.g. Appendix J in Welty et al.
text). You will notice from the above expression that the diffusion
time gets very large when the distance L gets large. The rule of
thumb is that diffusion is very fast over short distances, but very
inefficient over longer distances, and that diffusion of a small
substance is faster than diffusion of a large substance. Diffusion is
typically responsible for transport processes where the length scale
is tens of microns or less, i.e. within and around the cell.
• Convection is transport due to the motion of a fluid. The
transported species gets carried along with the moving fluid.
Convection is at work if you stir your coffee up to mix in the cream.
It is much more efficient than diffusion over large distances, and is
the mechanism of transport in the cardiovascular and respiratory
systems.

To understand convection we have to understand how fluid moves, and

therefore we will turn to fluid mechanics.

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

Fluid properties: We need to make a few definitions before we can get

into the main part of the course. Let’s start with the definitions of stress
and of a fluid.

Stress and the Stress Tensor: Stress is force per unit area, and therefore
has units of N/m2 (Pa), dynes/cm2, psi, etc. Stress is a complicated thing
because it depends on two quantities that are both vectors, namely
force and the orientation of the surface. This means that stress is
actually a second order tensor, which is the generalization of a vector.
The stress tensor is denoted by σ, and its components are denoted by
σij. Note that there are two indices to the stress tensor:

• The first index refers to the plane on which the stress acts, or
more specifically, to the orientation of the outward normal to
that plane.
• The second index refers to the direction in which the force acts.

Thus, σxy refers to a stress created by a force acting in the y-direction on

a surface with a normal in the x-direction. In three dimensions, the
stress tensor has 9 components:




σ =  
 

 

Here it is important to differentiate between a shear stress, which is due

to a force applied tangential to a surface, and a normal stress, which
occurs when a force is applied normal to a surface. We can see that
shear stresses are entries in the stress tensor σij for which i ≠ j, while
normal stresses are those for which i = j. It can be shown that the stress
tensor is symmetric, so that σij = σji.

For normal stresses, the stress is considered positive when the force
and the normal vector to the surface point in the same direction. That
means that tensile stresses are positive and compressive stresses are
negative.

Fluid: A fluid is a substance that deforms continuously under the action

of a shear stress, no matter how small. Both liquids and gases are fluids.
An important consequence of this definition is that shear stresses must
be zero in any fluid that is at rest.

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

F F

Solid Fluid

Fixed lower Fixed lower

plate plate

When a solid is contained between When a fluid is contained between the

the plates, the upper plate moves
then stops when a shear force is
applied. This corresponds to the solid
deforming and then stopping its
deformation.
plates, the upper plate moves so long as a
shear force is applied. This corresponds to
the fluid deforming continuously.

The Continuum Concept: To analyze fluid flow, mass transport, etc, we

need to speak about fluid properties at a point. For example, consider a
small cube of volume ∆V that contains fluid with mass, ∆mass. We
define the density, ρ, as:

Lim Δ
=
Δ → 0 Δ

We expect the behaviour shown below. As ∆V approaches zero we get

large variations in the “density”; therefore, we do not let ∆V go to zero
but instead allow it to go to some small volume δV. If the length scale
associated with δV is much smaller than all other length scales in the
problem, this is OK. However, if not, then the idea of the fluid as a
continuum breaks down. For example, if we consider blood flow in the
aorta, we can consider the blood as a continuum, since the length scale
of the blood (red cell dimensions, 8 µm) is much smaller than the
diameter of the aorta (2.5 cm). If the same blood flows in a capillary of
diameter 10 µm, then we cannot consider the blood to be a continuum.

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 BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

Scale of Scale of macroscopic

molecular variations
∆mass/∆V variations

δV ∆V

Units: We will use F = ma a lot. You sometimes have to be a little bit

careful about units when using this equation (and ones derived from it).
You are familiar with the SI system of units, as shown in the table below.
Notice that the units of acceleration, force and stress are derived. You
may also be somewhat familiar with the cgs system, which is a close
cousin of SI. In medicine we also use some special units for pressure,
most often mmHg but also sometimes cmH2O.

Quantity SI system cgs system British system

Mass kg g slug
Length meter cm foot
Time second second second
2 2 2
Acceleration m/s cm/s ft/s
2 2 2
Force Newton (1 N = 1 kg m/s ) dyne (1 dyne = 1 g cm/s ) pound-force (1 lbf = 1 slug ft/s )
2 2 2
Stress Pascal (1 Pa = 1 N/m ) dyne/cm lbf/ft or psi

It would be fine if we could leave it that way. Unfortunately, there is

also the British system that we sometimes have to deal with as
engineers. In its simplest form, the unit of mass in the British system is
the slug, and then the (derived) unit of force is the pound-force (lbf).
The unit of stress is the lbf/ft2, except that is hardly ever used, with psi
(lbf/in2) being more common.

Even worse, there is a more common unit of mass the British system,
the pound-mass (lbm). The thing to remember is that one pound-mass
weighs one pound-force on earth (at sea level). What does that mean?
We can use W = mg, where W is weight, m is mass and g is gravitational
acceleration (32.2 ft/s2) to write:
ft
1 lbf = 1 lbm × 32.2 
s

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

That means that a pound-force is exactly the same as 32.2. lbm ft/s2,
just the same way as 1 N is exactly the same as 1 kg m/s2. Exercise:
show from the above that there are 32.2 lbm in one slug.

Example: What is the hydrostatic blood pressure difference in mmHg

between the head and toes of a 6 foot tall person? Pressure varies with
height, h, according to p = ρgh. The density of blood is 65.5 lbm/ft3.

Answer: We write:

Δ$ = %ℎ
)* +

= 65.5 × 32.2 × 6 +

+
,  
)* )*+ +

= 1.266 × 10- . 0 1 5
+
  32.2 )* +
/  144 34
)*+ 760 7%
= 2.73  . 0
34 14.7 $3
= 141 7%

Lecture 2: Fluid kinematics. Eulerian/Lagrangian.

Steady/unsteady. Streamlines.

Eulerian vs. Lagrangian: There are two fundamental ways of “keeping

track” of what a flowing fluid is doing. One is to track the motion of
individual particles. This is the Lagrangian approach, which is
sometimes described as a material-following approach. For example, if
a fluid particle was at position x0 at time t=0, then its velocity would be
expressed as v(t; x0), where the x0 in brackets serves to identify the
specific fluid particle that we are referring to. The Lagrangian approach
is conceptually simple, but turns out to be very difficult in practice
because all fluid particles are moving so that it is hard to keep track of
which particles are being referred to.

The second approach is the Eulerian formulation, where we describe

the fluid velocity as a function of position, x. This is analogous to looking
into a flow and measuring the velocity at a given point x. Even if the
point is fixed, the velocity that we measure represents different fluid
particles at each instant in time, since the fluid flowing past x is always
changing. Overall this is a simpler approach, but leads to some
paradoxes, as we will see below. In this course we will use only an
Eulerian approach.

Steady vs. Unsteady: If no flow variables are changing as a function of

time in the Eulerian approach, then the flow is said to be steady. In
other words, if
∂$ ∂9
= =0
∂
∂

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

then we have steady flow. A very strange thing is that we can have fluid
acceleration even in steady flow! At first sense this does not seem to
make sense (if velocity is not changing with time, then how can there be
any acceleration?) To see how this can occur, consider the flow in a
converging pipe, as shown below. We will show later that if the fluid is
incompressible (constant density) then the fluid velocity must be higher
in the small section of the pipe. If we have a steady supply of fluid and
no time-variation, then the velocity measured at every point in the flow
will be independent of time. Therefore, the flow is steady. However, if
we consider the fate of a fluid particle we can see that as it moves from

to , it must speed up. Therefore, the fluid particle has acceleration.
<9
This tells us that : ≠
<=
in the Eulerian formulation.

v1 < v2

We can derive an expression for the fluid’s acceleration in the Eulerian

formulation as follows. Suppose that an individual fluid particle has
some property g, such as density, momentum, etc. In an Eulerian
formulation, the position of the particle is changing with time, so that
we can write g as a function of the form g(x(t), t), where x(t) is the
position of the particle. Then to compute the rate of change of g we use
the chain rule to differentiate as follows:

> >
%?@?
A,
A = %?C?
A, D?
A, E?
A,
A
>
>

∂% ∂C ∂% ∂D ∂% ∂E ∂%
= + + +
∂C ∂
∂D ∂
∂E ∂
∂

<

But <= is just the rate of change of x-position of the fluid particle with
time, which is nothing other than the x-component of the particle’s
velocity, vx. Applying a similar argument to the second and third terms,
we obtain:

> ∂% ∂% ∂% ∂%
%?@?
A,
A = G + G + G +
>
∂C
∂D  ∂E  ∂

∂%
= + 9 • ∇%
∂

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BMED3300 Biotransport Lecture Notes © C. Ross Ethier 2004, 2013

This is sometimes known as the material-following or substantive

derivative, since it represents how g changes with time for a given fluid
JK JK
J= J=
particle. It is denoted by . Note that has a contribution due to
<K
unsteadiness, <= , as well as a contribution due to how g changes with
position, 9 • ∇%.

We can use this expression to compute the acceleration by replacing g

by one of the components of the velocity vector. Students should show
that the resulting expression for the acceleration is

∂9
:= + 9 • ∇9
∂

This expression clearly shows that it is possible to have a non-zero

acceleration even if the flow is steady.

Streamlines: A streamline is an imaginary line that is constructed so as

to be everywhere tangent to the fluid velocity vector (see diagram).
Note that fluid particles cannot cross a streamline, since by definition
the fluid velocity is tangent to the streamline. In steady flow, the
streamlines are fixed, and particles travel along streamlines.

In two dimensions, streamlines obey the following equation:

G >D
=
G
>C

If we put a bunch of streamlines together, we obtain a streamtube. This

is an imaginary tube inside the flow. Because its surface is made up of
streamlines (which fluid does not cross), no fluid crosses the walls of a
streamtube (see below).

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