Experimental measurement of blood physical properties and its application to blood flow simulation

Density, viscosity and hematocrit values of human whole blood were measured. Two series of measurements were made. One involved only human blood and the other included the addition of anticoagulant. 18 individuals (6 female, 12 male) volunteered for this experiment; their age ranged between 23 and 28 years old. All of the 18 samples were used without anticoagulant; 14 of them were also used for measurements after the addition of ethylene diamine tetracetic acid (EDTA). The results were used to simulate the pulsatile blood flow within the cardiovascular system. The classical model of Womersley was used to estimate the velocity profile and the volumetric flow; incompressible and Newtonian flow was assumed. The profiles obtained from using the experimental values of four (2 male, 2 female) of the volunteers (both samples, with and without anticoagulant) were compared. Results show that no significant differences in the profiles are found as a result of the differences in the values of the blood properties.

Keywords: Hemodynamics, blood density, blood viscosity, hematocrit, blood flow simulation.