Multiscale Modeling of Platelet Dynamics in Blood Flow With Application to Thrombus Formation

From an averaged point of view, blood can often be treated computationally as a single-phase fluid of non-Newtonian character. Such a model may be appropriate if information regarding the bulk motion of the blood is all that is required. If, however, one seeks to describe the mechanisms leading to diseases such as thrombosis in the presence of foreign surfaces such as prosthesis, accurate predictions of platelet behavior in the dynamic environment of the blood are required. There are several effects that necessitate a careful treatment of platelet dynamics. For example, it is well known that the presence of red blood cells has a significant impact on radial distribution of platelets as well as the shear stress experienced by the platelets [1]. Therefore, the paths of and forces experienced by individual platelets are to be determined in order to predict the location and predilection for thrombus formation. However, since the length scales of the platelets are much smaller than the typical dimensions of the flow regions through which blood flows, it is not possible to capture platelet dynamics in a single-scale computation. Therefore, a multiscale technique for incorporating the dynamics of platelets and platelet-RBC interactions into large-scale flow simulations is required. We therefore examine a suspension of ellipsoidal and circular rigid particles that are representative of red blood cells and platelets carried in a Newtonian fluid to study the interaction or red blood cells and platelets.