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This study focuses numerically on dynamics in two dimensions of vesicles in microcirculation. The method used is based on boundary integral formulation. This study is inspired by the behavior of red blood cells (RBCs) in the microvasculature. Red RBCs carry oxygen from the lungs and deliver it through the microvasculature. The shape adopted by RBCs can affect blood flow and influence oxygen delivery. Our simulation using vesicles (a simple model for RBC) reveals unexpected complexity as compared to the case where a purely unbounded Poiseuille flow is considered [Kaoui, Biros, and Misbah, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 188101 (2009)]. In sufficiently large channels (in the range of 100/µm; the vesicle size and its reduced volume are taken in the range of those of a human RBC), such as arterioles, a slipperlike (asymmetric) shape prevails. A parachutelike (symmetric) shape is adopted in smaller channels (in the range of 20 µm, as in venules), but this shape loses stability and again changes to a pronounced slipperlike morphology in channels having a size typical of capillaries (5-10 µm). Stiff membranes, mimicking malaria infection, for example, adopt a centered or off-centered snakelike locomotion instead (the denomination snaking is used for this regime). A general scenario of how and why vesicles adopt their morphologies and dynamics among several distinct possibilities is provided. This finding potentially points to nontrivial RBCs dynamics in the microvasculature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widely regarded as an interesting model system for studying flow properties of blood, vesicles are closed membranes of phospholipids that mimic the cytoplasmic membranes of red blood cells. In this study we analyze the rheology of a suspension of vesicles in a confined geometry: the suspension, bound by two planar rigid walls on each side, is subject to a shear flow. Flow properties are then analyzed as a function of shear rate γ, the concentration of the suspension ϕ, and the viscosity contrast λ = ηin/ηout, where ηin and ηout are the fluid viscosities of the inner and outer fluids, respectively. We find that the apparent (or effective viscosity) of the suspension exhibits both shear thinning (decreasing viscosity with shear rate) or shear thickening (increasing viscosity with shear rate) in the same concentration range. The shear thinning or thickening behaviors appear as subtle phenomena, dependant on viscosity contrast λ. We provide physical arguments on the origins of these behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]