Peristaltic transport of blood in small vessels: study of a mathematical model

The peristaltic flow of blood in small vessels is investigated in the paper by developing a mathematical model in which blood has been treated as a two-layer fluid where the core region is described by Casson model and the peripheral region is taken to be Newtonian viscous. Wave frame steady solutions for channel flow as well as axisymmetric flow are presented. Due care has been taken to consider the conservation of mass separately in the two layers. It is found that the higher the viscosity of the peripheral layer, the greater is the flow rate. Moreover, a thinner peripheral layer enhances the flow rate, whereas the flow rate reduces when the yield stress increases. It is further observed that the flow-rate in the case of a single layer is more than the two layer flow-rate when the peripheral layer is more viscous than the core layer. Besides, the flow-rate in the case of axisymmetric flow is always found to be much greater than that of channel flow under identical conditions.