A design principle for vascular beds: the effects of complex blood rheology.
We propose a design principle that extends Murray's original optimization principle for vascular architecture to account for complex blood rheology. Minimization of an energy dissipation function enables us to determine how rheology affects the morphology of simple branching networks. The behavior of various physical quantities associated with the networks, such as the wall shear stress and the flow velocity, is also determined. Our results are shown to be qualitatively and quantitatively compatible with independent experimental observations and simulations.
Alarcón
Tomás
T
Department of Computer Science, Bioinformatics Unit, University College, London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom. t.alarcon@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Byrne
Helen M
HM
Maini
Philip K
PK
D001776:Blood Circulation Time; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D002196:Capillaries / Q000502:physiology; D018056:Hemorheology; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D013314:Stress, Mechanical