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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Sep 28.
Published in final edited form as: Ann Biomed Eng. 2008 Jan 11;36(4):534–544. doi: 10.1007/s10439-007-9429-0

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 4

Estimated pressure fluctuations on the endothelium in the skin of a mouse due to blood cells. A and B give the flow fields and cell positions at various times for 2 different simulations. Total time of 0.8 s is normalized to 1. The pressure field is represented by colors and the velocity field is represented by arrows. Panel A: Time sequence of three RBCs following a WBC into a larger venule is shown in a–e. Blue arrows in (a) give flow direction. Panel B: simulation of six RBCs following a WBC into the right branch with diverging flow. Normalized pressure, P, at the wall positions marked by the red arrows in Panels 2A(a) and 2B(a) are shown in Panels C and D, respectively. The blue letters a–e within the plots mark the times corresponding to the panels a–e in Panels A and B. Note the large fluctuation in pressure at the wall as the WBC passes, and then the RBCs pass. In D, the pressure at the stagnation point increases significantly as the cells approach (a–d). The increase in pressure near the end of the simulation is due to the flow resistance produced by the cells in the exit segments (reproduced with permission from Ref. 69).