Blood Rheology in Shear and Uniaxial Elongation

• NCJ Number: 252260
• Author(s): Alexander Kolbasov, Patrick M. Comiskey, Rakesh P. Sahu, Suman Sinha-Ray, Alexander L. Yarin, Basant S. Sikarwar, Sungu Kim, Talukder Z. Jubery, Daniel Attinger
• Date Published: December 2016
• Length: 8 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Finding the Region of Origin of Bloodspatters in Complex Situations: Novel Physics-Based Methods and Tools

Annotation

Despite being both a common and precious fluid, the rheological properties of blood have not been thoroughly investigated, so this study examined and characterized the rheology of swine blood.

Abstract

The rheology study was performed in shear flow and in uniaxial elongation. Measurements show that blood is a shear-thinning and viscoelastic fluid. The relaxation time and elongational viscosity of blood were measured. The relaxation time was found to be in agreement with a recent measurement by Brust et al. (2013). This study shows for the first time that the elongational viscosity can be 1,000 times higher than the shear viscosity. Implications for biology and forensics are discussed. (Publisher abstract modified)