Flow of a Blood Analogue Solution through Microchannels with Bifurcations

We investigate the flow patterns of Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids in microchannels containing bifurcations. The Newtonian fluid used as a reference is de-ionized water, while the non-Newtonian fluid used in the experiments has a shear rheology similar to that of human blood. The geometrical shape of the channels used reproduce bifurcating vessels, typically encountered in microcirculation networks. Visualizations of the flow patterns were performed for a wide range of flow rates using streak photography. For the viscoelastic fluid flow, recirculations appear upstream of the bifurcating point, which increase in size when the elasticity of the flow is increased. On the other hand, for the Newtonian fluid flow, no recirculations were observed within the flow rate range under investigation.