Cardiovascular Circulation:

Pumps, Pipes and Fluids in Nature

ChE3200 S i 2004 Spring

Prof. Victor Breedveld

Cardiovascular Circulation
Discovered by William Harvey (1578-1657) Pump P (heart), (h t) pipes i ( (arteries, t i veins) i ) and fluid (blood) Bodys B d main i t transport t mechanism: h i
- Oxygen (lungs organs) - CO2 (organs lungs) - Heat (organs body extremities) - Nutrients - Waste

Failure is leading cause of death

Goal: Engineering Analysis

Cardiovascular Circulation: Numbers

Blood volume: 5.2 l Flow rate: 5 l/min (rest) 30 l/min (strenuous exercise) Blood velocity in aorta: 0.3 m/s (rest) in capillary veins: 0.4 mm/s (rest) Combined length g of blood vessels: 100,000 , km Heartbeat rate: ca 70/min (rest) 200/min (max) Heart stroke volume: 0.070 0 070 l = 70 ml Power output of heart: 1.3 W (rest) 8 W (exercise) Efficiency Effi i of f heart: h ca. 10%

Pressure
Not constant during stroke:
- maximum: systolic pressure (120 mm Hg - gauge) - minimum: diastolic pressure (80 mm Hg - gauge)

Systolic pressure must be high enough to overcome gravity

+ friction of piping vertical distance heart head (zhh) is important!!! Psys,min = blood g zhh Examples p : - humans: moderate (120 mm Hg, zhh ~ 0.4 m) - horses: higher (180 mm Hg, zhh ~ 1 m) - giraffes: very high (200-300 (200 300 mm Hg Hg, zhh ~ 2 3 m) - snake: ground low climbing tree high solution: snake heart close to head - underwater animals: low (blood - water)

Cardiovascular Circulation: Schematics

Simple design (reptiles, fish) Heart Lungs/ Gills Body Double pumping action (booster pump) necessary to overcome gravity and the combined friction of capillary vessels in lungs and body Body Right heart Left h t heart Lungs/ Gills More complex design (mammals, birds)

Design g of Heart: Close-up

Two ventricles/atria, separated by valves. Ventricles have thick walls Left ventricle thicker walls than right

Design of Heart: Muscle Contraction

Why are walls of heart ventricles thick?
More M muscle l more power
(left thicker: higher pressure)

In exercise exercise, heart reduces the ventricle volume by ca. 80%

Muscles are most efficient

when shortening is not too drastic (~ 10%)
Sphere model

Thick wall design enables efficient ff reduction

of ventricle volume

Design of Heart: Role of atria

Muscles cannot actively expand, only relax
refilling ventricles is slow Atria contract to provide filling pressure for ventricles Heart stroke two phases: - contraction of atria (gentle) - contraction of ventricles (hard)

Engineering analog: supercharger on pump

Pipes: arteries, veins, capillaries

Contradiction: Efficient pumping requires large pipes (friction), efficient ffi i t exchange h of f heat h t and d gases requires i narrow pipes. Solution: Different pipe sizes in network;use capillaries only where necessary (tissue, (tissue organs) * Arteries (heart capillaries): high g p pressure, , thick muscular walls, , flexible * Veins (capillaries heart): lower pressures, thin muscular walls, less flexible * Capillaries: very thin walls

Downsizing Pipes
What is the most efficient way to go from arteries to capillaries? Cost function of blood vessels (Murray, 1926): Total cost = frictional cost + metabolic cost = Q P + C1 a2 L ~ C2 L Q2 a-4 + C1 a2 L (Hagen (Hagen-Poiseuille) Poiseuille) Minimize the total cost function for constant L and Q: (cost function)/a = 0 aopt ~ Q1/3

Downsizing Pipes (2)

Bifurcation: one vessel splits into two smaller ones (equal size) Qn an+1 an

Qn+1

- Qn+1 = 0.5Qn (mass conservation) - Optimizing total cost function an+1 = 0.794 an and = 37.5 - From F aorta t (a ( 0 = 1.5 1 5 cm) ) to t capillary (510-4 cm) we would need: 510 5 10-4 = (0.794) (0 794)n1.5 15 n = 30 generations

NB In body bifurcations are usually not symmetrical

Regulating Flow
Overall flow: Heart rate y Distribution: Adapt to needs of body
Organ Lungs Kidneys Liver Brain Heart muscle Oth muscle Other l (in exercise) Skin (max. vasodilation) Fraction of flow [%] 100 22 13 14 5 18 75 4 Flow/organ mass [l/(kg min)] 80 8.0 4.0 0.85 0.55 0.8 0 03 0.03 0.55 0.08 1.2

Regulating Flow (2)

How to regulate flow distribution in piping network?

Control friction of different paths!!!

Hagen-Poiseuille (laminar flow): Q = P/L ( ( a4)/(8 )
(take logarithm on both sides)

log [Q] = log [ P/L ( a4)/(8 ) ]

(differentiate, P and L constant)

Q/Q ~ 4a/a
Decreasing D i pipe i di diameter t b by 10% (a/a / = -0.10) 0 10) results lt in 40% decrease in flow rate (Q/Q = -0.40). Efficient Effi i t regulatory l t mechanism: h i blood vessels can expand and contract.

Pulsatile Flow
How to characterize/analyze blood flow?
Reynolds number Re is not suitable for dimensional analysis l i of f transient, i pulsatile l il fl flow.

New dimensionless group: Womersley number: Wo = a (/) : angular frequency of heart beat ,: blood viscosity and density a: radius of blood vessel

Flexible Arteries: Surviving incompressibility

Blood is incompressible reducing volume of circulatory system (heart muscle contraction) creates problem: where does blood go without bursting the vessels?

Solution: flexible arteries to dampen pressure peaks

Flexible Arteries (2)

Arteriosclerosis: stiffening of artery walls (lipid/cholesterol deposition) reduced ability of body to regulate systolic pressure

High blood pressure,

Increased risk of breakage of pipe walls

Blood: Composition
Plasma (90% water, 7% proteins, 1% inorganic material)
- Newtonian fluid with viscosity y 1.2 mPa.s

Cells - Red cells (erythrocytes) oxygen transport - White cells (leukocytes, various types) immune system - Platelets blood clotting Volume ratio red 600 : white : platelets : 1 : 1

Red cells dominate the blood flow properties

Blood: Red cells

Disks (diameter 7.6m, thickness 2.8m)
Donut-like D t lik shape h

allow ll d deformation f i with i h minimum i i i increase

of membrane area + efficient transport of O2

Take T k up 40-50% 40 50% of f bl blood d volume l (h (hematocrit) t it)

Blood: Viscosity
Blood is shear-thinning fluid: viscosity becomes lower at higher flow rates

Power-law model describes blood pretty accurately

Blood: Viscosity (2)

Why is blood shear-thinning?
Red blood cell properties p p - aggregation (aggregates break at high shear lower )

- deformation (cells can deform to slip past each other and

squeeze through capillaries)

- shape (ellipsoids can orient in flow)

Blood: Viscosity (3)

Combined effects

Blood: Sickle Cell Anemia

Disease of hemoglobin (oxygen transport protein): in absence of oxygen hemoglobin forms aggregates inside the red sickle cells cells become stiff and can no longer deform viscosity increases and heart has trouble pumping

Blood: Sickle Cell Anemia (2)

Blood: Sickle Cell Anemia (3)

Bodys strategy for survival: Lower blood viscosity by lowering concentration of red blood cells

Cost: less oxygen transport capacity anemia

References
S. S Vogel, Vogel Vital Vital circuits: on pumps pumps, pipes and the workings of
circulatory systems, Oxford University Press, 1992. Y.C. Fung, Biodynamics: Biodynamics: circulation circulation , Springer Springer-Verlag, Verlag, 1984. Y.C. Fung, Biomechanics: mechanical properties of living tissues, Springer-Verlag, p g g, 1981. K.H. McDonald III, Sickle cell anemia as a rheologic disease, The American Journal of Medicine 70, 288-298, 1981.