Computational modeling of extravascular platelet aggregation under flow

Abstract

Platelets in blood aggregate as part of the normal physiologic response to a blood vessel injury. Extravascular injuries, those that occur outside the blood vessel, are not well understood and lack numerical tools to study them. In this research, we develop and validate numerical tools to study extravascular platelet aggregation based on the design of a microfluidic "bleeding chip'' device via the finite element method. Key model developments are for the fluid dynamics and platelet transport. For the platelet transport model, we also develop and benchmark the underlying flux-corrected transport algorithm to run in parallel using the FEniCS software suite. We use the numerical tools developed to calibrate and validate an ODE model of extravascular aggregation. With this model, we also benchmark and test the disparity of the fluid and reaction timescales to improve simulation time. These numerical tools provide a framework for future studies in extravascular platelet aggregation and other blood clotting phenomena.