Abstract
A particle method for computer simulation of blood flow is proposed to directly analyze the characteristic mechanical behavior of red blood cells (RBCs) in blood flow. The entire simulation region including plasma and an RBC was discretized by particles that move in Lagrangian coordinates. The MPS method was applied to the incompressible flow analysis of plasma, and an elastic spring model based on the minimum energy principle to the motion of deformable RBC. A two-dimensional simulation of blood flow between parallel plates revealed that the proposed method successfully expressed the deformation of RBC depending on membrane stiffness during its movement downstream, corresponding to a deformation in a parachute shape observed in experiments.
