The effect of rigid cells on blood viscosity: linking rheology and sickle cell anemia

an adhesion potential, we show that such adhesion, or aggregation, is unlikely to provide a physical rationalization for the viscosity increase observed in the experiments at moderate shear rates due to rigidified cells. Through numerical simulations, we also highlight that most of the viscosity increase of the suspension is due to the rigidity of the particles rather than their sickled or spherical shape. Our results are relevant to better characterize SCA, provide useful insights relevant to rheological consequences of blood transfusions, and, more generally, extend to the rheology of mixed suspensions having particles with different rigidities, as well as offering possibilities for developments in the field of soft material composites.