Simulation of platelets suspension flowing through a stenosis model using a dissipative particle dynamics approach

Stresses on blood cellular constituents induced by blood flow can be represented by a continuum approach down to the μm level; however, the molecular mechanisms of thrombosis and platelet activation and aggregation are on the order of nm. The coupling of the disparate length and time scales between molecular and macroscopic transport phenomena represents a major computational challenge. In order to bridge the gap between macroscopic flow scales and the cellular scales with the goal of depicting and predicting flow induced thrombogenicity, multi-scale approaches based on particle methods are better suited. We present a top-scale model to describe bulk flow of platelet suspensions: we employ dissipative particle dynamics to model viscous flow dynamics and present a novel and general no-slip boundary condition that allows the description of three-dimensional viscous flows through complex geometries. Dissipative phenomena associated with boundary layers and recirculation zones are observed and favorably compared to benchmark viscous flow solutions (Poiseuille and Couette flows). Platelets in suspension, modeled as coarse-grained finite-sized ensembles of bound particles constituting an enclosed deformable membrane with flat ellipsoid shape, show self-orbiting motions in shear flows consistent with Jeffery's orbits, and are transported with the flow, flipping and colliding with the walls and interacting with other platelets.