Vortex trails behind a cylinder in ox blood¹

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Halikas, George C.^{; *}

Affiliations: Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Tennessee Medical Units, Memphis, Tennessee 38103

Note: [1] This work was supported in part by USPHS grant HE-09495.

Note: [*] Present address: Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, College, Alaska 99701.

Abstract: It has long been known that a cylindrical obstacle placed in a moving fluid generates a vortex trail. The frequency of vortex detachment is related to the non-dimensional Strouhal number, S. For Newtonian fluids S=0.14 at Reynolds number R=60 and increases to a constant ≃ 0.20 at R>200. The equivalent relationships for blood were determined and found to be considerably different. Strouhal number for blood showed a correlation with the Reynolds number only when S’s obtained with a given cylinder were considered. They were 3 times greater than for Newtonian fluids at threshold R (i.e. R at which vortices begin to detach), and they decreased with increasing R.

DOI: 10.3233/BIR-1970-6305

Journal: Biorheology, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 189-199, 1970