Vladimir, LebleLima, Rui A.Fernandes, Carla S.Dias, Ricardo P.2012-06-262012-06-262011Vladimir, Leble; Lima, R.; Fernandes, Carla S.; Dias, Ricardo P. (2011). Flow of red blood cells through microchannel with a confluence. In Congress on Numerical Methods in Engineering 2011. Coimbrahttp://hdl.handle.net/10198/7066Over the years micro-visualization techniques have been used to investigate in vitro blood flow through straight microchannels with dimensions close to in vivo capillaries. However, a few detailed studies have been performed in complex in vitro microvascular networks composed by diverging and converging bifurcations. The main purpose of present work is to show the application of a confocal micro-PTV system to track both flourescent particles and red blood cells (RBCs) through a rectangular polydimethysiloxane (PDMS) microchannel with a confluence. The measurements of the flow behaviour of trace particles suspended in pure water and RBCs in concentrated suspensions were performed in the surroundings of a confluence. After performing simulations with the commercial finite element software package POLYFLOW®, some experimental results were compared with the numerical ones. Experimental results for pure water were in a good agreement with numerical results. Overall, the RBCs velocities were higher than those for fluorescent particles which suggest that RBC deformability and cell-free layer formation around the apex of the confluence may play an important role on the observed deviationsengRed blood cellsVelocity profilesConfocal micro-PTVConfluenceMicrochannelconference paper