A Combined Numerical and Experimental Analysis on Erythrocyte Damage Mechanism in Microscale Flow

الملخص EN

An experimental system was designed and completed to realize the visualization of erythrocyte suspension microscale flow in microchannel and obtain the geometric parameters.

The numerical simulation of the flow in the microchannel was accomplished to obtain the distribution of the physical parameters.

Combined with the experimental data, the fitted curves of the physical parameters and geometric parameters on the axis were achieved.

By analyzing the energy balance of the erythrocyte, the curve of the elasticity modulus of the erythrocyte membrane was obtained.

The mechanism of the hemolysis caused by collision was expounded.

Besides, the comparison among different cases was completed, illustrating the influence of the flow rate on hemolysis.

The result shows that the predominant force of longitudinal compression is the pressure difference per erythrocyte.

The curve of the elasticity modulus indicates that the membrane elasticity rapidly decreases as the erythrocyte approaches to the wall.

The erythrocyte membrane loses elasticity, indicating that the contractile protein is fragile to the compressive loading, which increases significantly with a higher flow rate, making the erythrocyte membrane more likely to fracture.