(261c) Relating Hemolysis and Turbulent Kinetic Energy Dissipation through Simulation

Hemolysis, or damage to red blood cells, can occur when red blood cells are exposed to forces not typically seen in the body. This can occur in blood contacting devices such as blood pumps, and can be detrimental to the patient's health. The current consensus is that red blood cell damage is related to the magnitude of shear stress acting on a cell as well as the cell's exposure time to that shear stress. Experiments have yielded correlations relating shear stress, exposure time and hemoglobin release, but the results have been mixed and have generally not agreed with computational results. The use of computational fluid dynamics for the design of blood contacting devices is attractive because it yields information about the flow field that is difficult to gain experimentally. Additionally, a correlation that could be used computationally would allow for rapid design and simulation of blood contacting devices, leading to designs that minimize blood damage before any experimental work has been done. This study seeks to relate hemoglobin release that is seen experimentally in classical hemolysis experiments to the dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy in the flow.