NUMERICAL SIMULATION AND MODELING OF CELL MOTION IN MICROCHANNELS

Date

2013-12

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Abstract

The motion of cells in flow has been studied in vivo, in viro, and in silico. Different models have been developed. In this dissertation we have compared the cell mostion with Navier-Stokes model and the Stokes model in both shear and Poseuille flow. Surprisingly, both models produce almost the same motion for most of the cases studied in this dissertation. Whether the cell motion is deformation-dominated or rigid body like determines if the Stokes model can be applied. When the red blood cell (RBC) are infected by malaria, the parasite forms a 'core' inside the cell. During the infection the chemicals released by the parasite make the cell membrane stiffer. We present the numerical simulations of the motion of a single Malaria-infected cell in narrow blood vessel under Poseuille flow and those of the interactions between an infected cell and multiple healthy cells. The infected cell migrates to the side of the channel due to loss of deformability and interaction with the healthy RBCs. And in the end, a power-law for the effective viscosity of a compounded cell has been obtained based on the filling volume fraction.

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Keywords

Navier-Stokes, Stokes, Malaria, Numerical simulation, Capillary number, Effective viscosity

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