Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica

Polymer Physics and Complex Fluids Group

Research

Dynamic states of a red blood cell in simple shear flow

A RBC with Viscosity ratio(out/in)=5: Transition from TU(Tumbling)-SW(Swing)-TT(Tank-treading) as shear rate increase.

We investigate blood cells in micro flow to provide a platform to design modern microfluidic device for manipulating cell dynamics. We adopted a coarse-grained RBC model[1] to study the dynamic states of a single cell in simple shear flow in a lattice Boltzmann fluid[2]. RBC dynamics in flow can be characterized by Capillary number (Ca) and Reynolds number(Re). RBC motion can be found to change from tumbling to tank-treading, with intermediate dynamic states.