Simulation of RBC dynamics using combined low dimension, immersed boundary and lattice Boltzmann methods

A 3-D simulation of red blood cells (RBCs) described as deformable cells in plasma flow is an indispensable element of blood flow analysis in the human vessels. To numerically investigate RBC motion in shear and Poiseuille flow, a mesoscale low dimensional-RBC method based on dissipative particle dynamics method has been successfully combined with a hybrid lattice Boltzmann method-immersed boundary method. This new model decreases the computational cost compared to the low dimensional RBC method and models the deformation of red blood cell accurately. To evaluate and validate the present numerical method, the relationship between the RBC diameter and the force value derived by the low dimensional-RBC method is compared with numerical and experimental data. In addition, as a benchmark test, the deformation index as the function of the capillary number of RBC motion through a narrow cylindrical tube has been performed. The behaviour of RBC in a shear flow and Poiseuille flow has been investigated. The present results demonstrated that this model is applied to reduce the computational cost, while maintaining the model precision.