Badr Kaoui
CNRS-UTC, Compiègne

Impact of the viscosity contrast on dynamics, rheology and partitioning of red blood cells in the microcirculatory system

I will present a numerical approach to simulate the dynamics of fluid-filled soft particles (vesicles, capsules and blood cells). The flow is computed using the lattice Boltzmann method and the fluid-particle two-way coupling is achieved using the immersed boundary method. The viscosity contrast (defined as the ratio of the internal to the external viscosities) is included using a geometrical algorithm that detects if a fluid node is either located inside or outside a particle [1]. I will present recent studies where the impact of the viscosity contrast has been addressed, for example, dynamics [2], rheology [3] and partitioning of red blood cells at the level of bifurcations in the microcirculatory system [4]. References: [1] Kaoui B. and Harting J. (2016), Two-dimensional lattice Boltzmann simulations of vesicles with viscosity contrast, Rheologica Acta, 55(6), 465 [2] Kaoui B., Krüger T. and Harting J. (2012) How does confinement affect the dynamics of viscous vesicles and red blood cells?Soft Matter, 8, 9246 [3] Kaoui B., Jonk R. and Harting J. (2014) Interplay between microdynamics and macrorheology in vesicle suspensions, Soft Matter, 10, 4735 [4] Shen Z., Coupier G., Kaoui B., Polack B., Harting J. and Misbah C., and Podgorski T. (2016) Inversion of hematocrit partition at microfluidic bifurcations, Microvascular Research 105, 40-46