Session M1: Mini-Symposium - Multiphase Flows in Biomedicine I

Theory of margination and cell-free layer thickness in blood flow

A mechanistic model is developed to describe segregation in confined multicomponent suspensions such as blood during Couette or plane Poiseuille flow. We focus attention on the case of a binary suspension with a deformable primary component (e.g. red blood cells) that completely dominates the collision dynamics in the system. The model captures the phenomena of depletion layer formation and margination observed in confined multicomponent suspensions of deformable particles. The depletion layer thickness of the primary component is predicted to follow a master curve relating it in a specific way to confinement ratio and volume fraction. Results from experiments and detailed simulations with different parameters (flexibility, viscosity ratio, confinement) collapse onto this curve with only one adjustable parameter. In a binary suspension, several regimes of segregation arise, depending on the value of a ``margination parameter'' $M$. Most importantly, in both Couette and Poiseuille flows there is a critical value of $M$ below which a sharp ``drainage transition'' occurs: one component is completely depleted from the bulk flow to the vicinity of the walls. Direct simulations also exhibit this transition as the size or flexibility ratio of the components changes.   

Two problems in multiphase biological flows: Blood flow and particulate transport in microvascular network, and pseudopod-driven motility of amoeboid cells

In this talk, two problems in multiphase biological flows will be discussed. The first is the direct numerical simulation of whole blood and drug particulates in microvascular networks. Blood in microcirculation behaves as a dense suspension of heterogeneous cells. The erythrocytes are extremely deformable, while inactivated platelets and leukocytes are nearly rigid. A significant progress has been made in recent years in modeling blood as a dense cellular suspension. However, many of these studies considered the blood flow in simple geometry, e.g., straight tubes of uniform cross-section. In contrast, the architecture of a microvascular network is very complex with bifurcating, merging and winding vessels, posing a further challenge to numerical modeling. We have developed an immersed-boundary-based method that can consider blood cell flow in physiologically realistic and complex microvascular network. In addition to addressing many physiological issues related to network hemodynamics, this tool can be used to optimize the transport properties of drug particulates for effective organ-specific delivery. Our second problem is pseudopod-driven motility as often observed in metastatic cancer cells and other amoeboid cells. We have developed a multiscale hydrodynamic model to simulate such motility. We study the effect of cell stiffness on motility as the former has been considered as a biomarker for metastatic potential.   

Acoustic droplet vaporization of vascular droplets in gas embolotherapy

This work is primarily motivated by a developmental gas embolotherapy technique for cancer treatment. In this methodology, infarction of tumors is induced by selectively formed vascular gas bubbles that arise from the acoustic vaporization of vascular droplets. Additionally, micro- or nano-droplets may be used as vehicles for localized drug delivery, with or without flow occlusion. In this talk, we examine the dynamics of acoustic droplet vaporization through experiments and theoretical/computational fluid mechanics models, and investigate the bioeffects of acoustic droplet vaporization on endothelial cells and in vivo. Functionalized droplets that are targeted to tumor vasculature are examined. The influence of fluid mechanical and acoustic parameters, as well as droplet functionalization, is explored. This work was supported by NIH grant R01EB006476.   

Temperature measurements in cavitation bubbles.

Cavitation is usually a nearly isothermal process in the liquid phase, but in some specific flow conditions like hot water or cryogenic fluids, significant temperature variations are detected. In addition, a large temperature increase happens inside the cavitation bubbles at the very end of their collapse, due to the fast compression of the gas at the bubble core, which is almost adiabatic. This process is of primary interest in various biomedical and pharmaceutical applications, where the mechanisms of bubble collapse plays a major role. To investigate the amplitude and the spatial distribution of these temperature variations inside and outside the cavitation bubbles, a system based on cold wires has been developed. They have been tested in a configuration of a single bubble obtained by submitting a small air bubble to a large amplitude pressure wave. Some promising results have been obtained after the initial validation tests.