Figure 6

Instantaneous snapshots of the RBC deformation profiles for the three cases under the highest pseudoshear rate of 500 s^-1. (a) Initial arrangement of RBCs for all three cases. (b) Simulated result from Case I. This case presents pronounced RBC stretching under the high shear condition whereby cells near the wall undergo “noodle-like” transformations. It should be noted that the simulation failed at t = 0.0025 s due to the non-physiological deformation of RBCs near the channel wall. (c) and (d) Simulated results from Case II and Case III. Case II exhibits higher incidences of “pinched” RBCs with sharp-edged profiles than those of Case III, thus demonstrating the effect of the bending treatment for large deformation applied in Case III but absent in Case II.