THEORY OF BLOOD RHEOLOGY BASED ON A STATISTICAL-MECHANICS TREATMENT OF ROULEAUX, AND COMPARISONS WITH DATA

A constitutive equation for the rheology of brood is obtained from the view of blood as a suspension of rouleaux (erythrocyte aggregates), w ith the rouleaux idealized as elastic cylinders. Properties depend on the distribution of rouleaux lengths, which is related to the state of cell aggregation and characterized by a structural distribution funct ion. A kinetic equation is developed to describe the balance of aggreg ation/disaggregation phenomena. The result is a structure-dependent Ma xwell model for the stress tensor, with viscosity and relaxation time linearly related to a structure parameter. Comparisons with data are s hown and discussed.