Numerical studies of a red blood cell in rectangular microchannels

The study of red blood cells (RBCs) flowing through rectangular microchannels has attracted an increasing interest, because most of the current microfluidic chips are designed as rectangular microchannels for the purpose of easy fabrication. In this paper, we numerically investigate the 3D motion and deformation of a RBC in rectangular microchannels, by using the smoothed dissipative particle dynamics to model the fluid flow and coupling the immersed boundary method to treat the fluid-RBC interaction. We have considered several fundamental questions concerned in experiments, including the effect of the mechanical properties of RBC, the initial position and orientation of RBC, as well as the asymmetry of the microchannel. In addition, we have demonstrated the differences among the fully 3D, axisymmetric, and 2D simulations of a RBC in microchannels. Published by AIP Publishing.