Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
that has been addressed in the present chapter. It was shown that the LB method is
an extremely powerful framework to deal simultaneously with blood plasma,
RBCs, and the glycocalyx in a unified and consistent form. The versatility of this
framework is such to be a good candidate to study biological fluids of different
types and at different scales without major differences.
When dealing specifically with blood and the development of cardiovascular
disease, it is key to address the detailed structure and dynamics of blood in the
surroundings of the endothelium, as recent work has revealed a correlation between
the flow-induced mechano-transduction in the glycocalyx and the development of
atherosclerosis. The presence of the glycocalyx is supposed necessary for the
endothelial cells to respond to fluid shear, and its role is characterized by studying
its response to shear stress. A coarse-grained model and a preliminary numerical
simulation of the blood flow over the exact, microscale, corrugated EC shape
covered by a prototype ESL have been proposed. Another direction we are under-
taking is to enhance our current, simplistic, interfacial tension model with addi-
tional stresses and bending properties associated with elastic structures. Our current
effort is to modify and extend the behaviour our fluid-fluid interface so as to enrich
and adapt its existing mechanical properties, in a manner which mimics the thin
membrane of erythrocytes.
If, at one hand, the microscopic blood-wall interaction has a noticeable impor-
tance for pathological states, on the other hand, the simulation of large-scale
circulatory systems relies on sophisticated imaging techniques and powerful simu-
lation methodologies. Owing to the basic assets of hydrokinetic modeling, the
unifying LB methodology provides a reliable and robust approach to the under-
standing of cardiovascular disease in multiple-scale arterial systems, with great
potential for impact on biophysical and biomedical applications. The inclusion of
RBCs allows to reproduce non-trivial blood rheology and represents a step forward
for clinical purposes, as much as for the basic understanding of biomechanics in
model and physiological scenarios.
References
1. Arlsan N (2007) Mathematical solution of the flow field over glycocalyx inside vascular
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2. Benzi R, Succi S, Vergassola M (1992) Theory and application of the lattice boltzmann
equation. Phys Rep 222(3):147
3. Bernaschi M, Melchionna S, Succi S, Fyta M, Kaxiras E, Sircar J (2009) MUPHY: a parallel
MUlti PHYsics/scale code for high performance bio-fluidic simulations. Comp Phys Comm
180:1495-1502
4. Bouzidi M, Firdaouss M, Lallemand P (2001) Momentum transfer of a boltzmann-lattice fluid
with boundaries. Phys Fluids 13(11):3452-3459
5. Boyd J, Buick JM (2008) Three-dimensional modelling of the human carotid artery using the
lattice boltzmann method: II. shear analysis. Phys Med Biol 53(20):5781-5795
6. Boyd J, Buick J, Green S (2007) Analysis of the casson and Carreau-Yasuda non-Newtonian
models. Phys Fluids 19:032,103
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