Velocity Measurement of Blood Flow in a Microtube Using Micro PIV System

Biophysical behavior of blood in the vasculature is of importance in microcirculation researches. Especially, rheological properties of blood flow have been studied using in vivo and in vitro experiments. This paper describes flow characteristics of in vitro blood flow. In order to obtain velocity distributions with high spatial resolution, a micro PIV technique, which consists of a fluorescent microscope, double-pulsed YAG laser and cooled CCD camera, was applied to in vitro blood flow experiment through a micro round tube of a diameter 100 μm. Velocity distributions with spatial resolutions of 5.9 x 0.73 μm were obtained even near the wall region. The results showed typical characteristics of Non-Newtonian fluid that the axial velocity profiles of blood flow were blunt around the center region of a tube. Moreover, blood flow velocity and water flow profiles were compared in order to clarify blood characteristic.