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Centrifugal separation is a highly efficient technique for accelerating the sedimentation of blood constituents in a cylindrical container through highspeed spin-up rotation. Few studies have reported on the separation of different blood constituents from homogeneous mixture of whole blood. In this study, the process through which blood constituent sedimentation occurs in a spin-up rotating cylindrical container is numerically investigated. Whole blood is considered a homogeneous mixture of red blood cells (RBC) and plasma, which are both considered incompressible viscous liquids. The Euler multi-fluid VOF (volume of fluid) model is introduced to simulate the separation of RBCs and plasma. The effects of the rotation speed and the geometric construction of the cylindrical container on the sedimentation and stratification of different blood constituents are studied. A stable interface between the RBC layer and plasma layer forms earlier in a high position. With an increase in the rotation speed, the interface between the RBCs and plasma layers forms more quickly. In the cylindrical container with a helical groove on the outer wall, a stable vortex occurs near the groove, which forces red blood cells to move toward the lower location of the groove, resulting in a conical distribution of the RBC layer and a larger volume fraction of plasma near the exit at the top. This allows for sufficient precipitation of the plasma, improving the separation efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bifurcated vessels represent a typical vascular unit of the cardiovascular system. In this study, the blood flow in symmetric and asymmetric bifurcated vessels are simulated based on computational fluid dynamics method. The blood is modeled as non-Newtonian fluid, and the pulsatile flow velocity is applied on the inlet. The effects of the fluid model, bifurcation angle and symmetry of the geometry of the vessel are investigated. The results show that the wall shear stress (WSS) on the outer wall of daughter branches for the non-Newtonian fluid flow is greater than that for Newtonian fluid flow, and the discrepancy between the flow of two fluid models is obvious at relatively low flow rates. With the bifurcation angle increases, the peak axial velocity of the cross-section of daughter branch decreases, so the WSS increases. For the non-Newtonian fluid flow in the asymmetric bifurcated vessels, more flow passes through the daughter vessel with a lower angle, and the WSS along the outer wall of which is lower. Furthermore, the region with a low time-averaged wall stress (TAWSS) and high oscillating shear index(OSI) distributed on the outer wall of bifurcation vessels are larger for the flow in the vessel with smaller bifurcation angle. In conclusion, the effects of the blood viscosity cannot be neglected at low flow rates and the geometry of the bifurcated vessel plays a key role with regards to the blood flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]