Simulation of platelet deposition in disturbed flow

We have developed a two-dimensional computational model of platelet-mediated biomaterial thrombosis. When applied to plane Poiseuille flow over collagen, it showed very good agreement with experimental results. Here, we attempt to simulate platelet deposition onto collagen in the presence of disturbed flow in a tubular expansion. At 0% hematocrit, good agreement with experiments is obtained for the recirculation zone, but not for the fully-developed downstream zone. At 20% hematocrit, poor agreement is observed unless the platelet-surface reaction coefficients are altered. In both cases, it appears the deficiencies are due to incomplete modeling of platelet transport mechanisms.