Analysis of Shear-Induced Platelet Aggregation and Breakup

To better understand the mechanisms leading to the formation of thrombi of hazardous sizes in the bulk of the blood, we have developed a kinetic model of shear-induced platelet aggregation (SIPA). In our model, shear rate regulates a mass-conservative population balance equation which computes the aggregation and disaggregation of platelets in a cluster mass distribution. Aggregation is modeled by the Smoluchowski coagulation equation, and disaggregation is incorporated using the aggregate breakup model of Pandya and Spielman. Previous experimental data for SIPA have been correlated with a special case of this model where only the two-body collision of free platelets was considered. However, the two-body collision theory is oblivious to the steady-state condition, and it required the use of a shear-dependent aggregation efficiency parameter to fit it to experimental data. Our method not only predicts steady states but also correlates with literature data without employing a shear-dependent aggregation efficiency.