What role do high and low wall shear stresses play in the deterioration of arteriole and capillary walls? Plaque buildup is common around bifurcations in arterioles, indicating that low wall shear stress may play a role in the weakening of the walls. This thesis investigates the creation of blood analog fluid used in a Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) curved channel to explore the fluid properties and characteristics near bifurcations. Major results in the experiments showed the viscosity and surface tension trends of a blood analog fluid composed of xanthan gum, glycerin, and distilled water with the addition of Silver Coated Hollow Glass Spheres in varying volume fractions. All experiments were conducted at room temperature with varying flow rates between 0.1-2 µL/second. The velocity profile was characterized at each flow rate. Important results that will be discussed will include the variation of flow near bifurcations and at different flow rates and RBC concentration. Full parabolic velocity profiles formed in the straight region of the channels as expected. After the bifurcation, the velocity profile was skewed to the outer wall. At lower flow rates there were fewer particles flowing near the wall of the channel.

To confirm computer simulations and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, benchtop experiments are needed with a fluid that mimics blood and its viscoelastic properties. Blood is challenging to use as a working fluid in a laboratory setting because of health and safety concerns. Therefore, a blood analogue is necessary to perform benchtop experiments. Viscosity is an important property of fluids for modeling and experiments. Blood is a shear thinning fluid, so it has a decreasing viscosity with higher shear rates. This project seeks to create a blood mimicking fluid for benchtop laboratory use. Numerous fluids with different combinations of water, glycerin, and xanthan gum were created to mimic the shear thinning property of blood at different hematocrit levels. Since the amount of xanthan gum is very small, an analytical balance was used. To mix the solution, an immersion blender and a heat circulator were used. The data were obtained from 10-90 torque percent, which is the range over which the rheometer is accurate, so the exact ranges of shear rate tested depended on the test fluid. The created solutions were compared to blood at the equivalent hematocrit and previously performed tests.The three different equivalent hematocrits all produced results similar to viscosities of blood. The results were similarly representative of blood at different equivalent viscosities for the 0.0075% xanthan gum and the 0.075% xanthan gum by weight. The solutions were able to mimic the shear thinning behavior of blood at different equivalent hematocrits. The fluids with 0.075% xanthan gum and 50% water and 50% glycerin is a better representative than the fluids with 0.075% xanthan gum and 60% water and 40% glycerin.

<p>Accurately assessing the risk and growth of rupture among intracranial aneurysms (IA) remains a challenging task for clinicians. Hemodynamic factors are known to play a critical role in the development of IAs, but the specific mechanisms are not well understood. Many studies have sought to correlate specific flow metrics to risk of growth and rupture but have reported conflicting findings. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has predominantly been the methodology used to study IA hemodynamics. Yet, CFD assumptions and limitations coupled with the lack of CFD validation has precluded clinical acceptance of IA hemodynamic assessments and likely contributed to the contradictory results among previous studies. Experimental particle image velocimetry (PIV) studies have been noticeably limited in both scope and number among IA studies, in part due to the complexity associated with such experiments. Moreover, the limited understanding of the robustness of hemodynamic metrics across varying flow and measurement environments and the effect of transitional flow in IAs also remain open issues. In this work, techniques to enhance IA PIV capabilities were developed and the first volumetric pulsatile IA PIV study was performed. A novel blood analog solution—a mixture of water, glycerol and urea— was developed and an autonomous methodology for reducing experimental noise in velocity fields was introduced and demonstrated. Both of these experimental techniques can also be used in PIV studies extending beyond IA applications. Further, the onset and development of transitional flow in physiological, pulsatile waveforms was explored. The robustness of hemodynamic metrics such as wall shear stress, oscillatory shear index, and relative residence time across varying modalities, spatiotemporal resolutions, and flow assumptions was explored. Additional hemodynamic metrics which have been demonstrated to be influential in other cardiovascular flows but yet to be tested in IA studies were also identified and considered. Ultimately this work provides a framework for future IA PIV studies as well as insight on using hemodynamic evaluations to assess the risk of growth and rupture of an IA, thereby taking steps towards enhancing the clinical utility of such analysis.</p>