Exploring the potential of blood flow network data

To gain a better understanding of the role of haemodynamic forces during the development of the cardiovascular system, a series of studies have been reported recently that describe flow fields in the vasculature of model systems. Such data sets, in particular those reporting networks at multiple stages, mark a transition in the focus from single...

Quantification of Blood Flow and Topology in Developing Vascular Networks

Since fluid dynamics plays a critical role in vascular remodeling, quantification of the hemodynamics is crucial to gain more insight into this complex process. Better understanding of vascular development can improve prediction of the process, and may eventually even be used to influence the vascular structure. In this study, a methodology to...

Altered wall shear stresses in embryonic chicken outflow tract due to homocysteine exposure

The embryonic heart is already beating before cardiac morphogenesis is complete. Therefore, the effect of blood flow on cardiogenesis has been subject of many studies. Shear stress, acting on the endocardial cells, has been shown to alter the expression of shear-responsive genes implicated in heart development. The congenital heart defects (CHDs...

Nanoscale contact line visualization based on total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy

We describe a novel measurement method to study the contact line of a droplet at nanoscale level. The method is based on Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscopy (TIRFM), which uses an evanescent excitation field produced by total internal reflection of light. The evanescent field depends on the angle of the incident light and has an...

Accurate Blood Flow Measurements: Are Artificial Tracers Necessary?

Imaging-based blood flow measurement techniques, such as particle image velocimetry, have become an important tool in cardiovascular research. They provide quantitative information about blood flow, which benefits applications ranging from developmental biology to tumor perfusion studies. Studies using these methods can be classified based on...

Tracking of vortices in a turbulent boundary layer

An experimental study of transitional pulsatile pipe flow

The transitional regime of a sinusoidal pulsatile flow in a straight, rigid pipe is investigated using particle image velocimetry. The main aim is to investigate how the critical Reynolds number is affected by different pulsatile conditions, expressed as the Womersley number and the oscillatory Reynolds number. The transition occurs in the...

Application of digital holography to filament size analysis

The potential of in-line digital holography to locate and measure the size and position of filaments, i.e. thin wire-like objects, distributed throughout a thick volume has been investigated. In this paper two approaches are introduced to study filaments of varying diameter. (1) It is shown analytically and experimentally that for a gradual...

3D Flow reconstruction using ultrasound PIV

Ultrasound particle image velocimetry (PIV) can be used to obtain velocity fields in non-transparent geometries and/or fluids. In the current study, we use this technique to document the flow in a curved tube, using ultrasound contrast bubbles as flow tracer particles. The performance of the technique is first tested in a straight tube, with...

Particle–fluid interactions in grid-generated turbulence

The effect of small particles on decaying grid-generated turbulence is studied experimentally. Using a two-camera system, instantaneous fluid-phase and particlephase measurements can be obtained simultaneously. The data obtained with this system are used to study the decay behaviour of the turbulent flow. The role of particle size, particle...

Comparison between theoretical predictions and direct numerical simulation results for a decaying turbulent suspension