Wednesday April 23, 2003
Bob Guy
Dept. of Mathematics, University of Utah
Abstract: A continuum model of platelet aggregation in large arteries is presented. The blood and aggregating platelets are treated as a single fluid with varying material properties to account for links between platelets. There are two distinct spatial scales, the scale of the fluid and the much smaller scale of platelet--platelet interactions. Activated platelets interact to form elastic links on the smaller scale. These links influence the fluid flow by the addition of an extra stress.
The presence of two spatial scales makes the problem extremely difficult to analyze or to simulate. However, under the assumptions that the links act as linear springs with zero resting length and the breaking rate of the links is independent of the strain, the equations on the platelet scale can be eliminated in favor of an evolution equation for the stress tensor. Some approximations for allowing the breaking rate of a link to depend on its length while only working with variables on the fluid length scale are presented. These approximations are compared with the exact solution for simple flows and compared with numerical results for more complicated flows.
For more information contact J. Keener, 1-6089