Blood flow around hollow fibers.

In an artificial lung, blood is oxygenated and flows around a bundle of hollow fibers while gas flows inside the fiber. The objective of this study is to understand the hydrodynamics of three different fiber banks (inline square IS, staggered square SS and equilateral triangle ET) and to investigate the influence of both a Newtonian and non-Newtonian Casson viscosity model on the flow field. A two-dimensional finite element model for permanent, isothermal, laminar blood flow perpendicular to hollow fibers is used. All fibers are assumed identical, straight and parallel. Porosity ranges from 0.4 to 0.6 and Reynolds number varies from 1 to 60. For a given Re, ET generates less resistance than SS, the latter being comparable with IS. A lower porosity increases resistance. Non-Newtonian viscosity affects velocity patterns only at low Re (<0.5) and higher porosity (>0.5). Resistance at low Re is significantly elevated in the fiber banks due to an overall increase in viscosity. This model makes it possible to study the influence of geometry and viscosity on hydrodynamics in fiber banks and may aid in the optimization of hollow fiber artificial lung design.