Chapter 8 - BIOLOGICAL FLUID MECHANICS

Summary

A Basic Introduction

There are many problems in mathematical biology which require a knowledge of fluid flow, for example, the flow of blood through the circulatory system, the swimming of microorganisms, the flight of birds and insects and the motion of bacteria, to name but a few.

Biological science has long been advanced from purely descriptive to analytical science. Many analytical methods of physical science have been used successfully in the study of biological science. Biofluid mechanics does not involve any new development of the general principles of fluid mechanics but it does involve some new applications of the method of fluid mechanics. The most common flow problem in the biological system is the flow of blood. In 1840, the French physician Poiseuille was interested in blood flow and conducted a study of flow in capillaries. It has become known as Poiseuille flow in fluid mechanics, but we know that ordinary Poiseuille flow does not represent the actual blood flow in a cardiovascular system. Many biofluid mechanics problems are concerned with classical fluid mechanics but also its modern aspects such as rheology, chemical reactions, electrothermal effects etc. In this chapter we will outline how we may apply some well-known methods of fluid mechanics to the biological system.

In the physical sciences, the flow of fluid is usually discussed under the heading “fluid dynamics”, and the flow of water under the heading “hydrodynamics”.