Figure 1. Blood flowing through a capillary At the inlet, the velocity profile of the blood is parabolic as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Velocity profile at the inlet As can be seen from Figure 2, the velocity is given by the following equation.
u z = u max (1
r2 ) R2
at r = R at r = 0
(1)
We see that the velocity is zero at both the walls (substituting r = R) and it is equal to umax at r = 0.
uz = 0
(2) (3)
u z = u max r2 ) 0.5 2
Let us assume that uz is 10 ms-1 and R is 0.5 m. We substitute these values in equation (1).
u z = 10(1
or
u z = 10 40r 2
(4)
We can model this boundary condition in COMSOL using the following steps.
Inflow/Outflow Velocity under Boundary Conditions from the drop-down menu for the
Boundary you want to specify the parabolic velocity profile for. 2) Specify the parabolic velocity expression in the appropriate (x or y) velocity field. Here we specify the x-velocity as a parabolic velocity profile. 3) Click on OK.