Bioengineer Rebecca Studies Blood Flow in Capillary Vessels.

Bioengineer Rebecca is modeling the flow of blood plasma in capillary blood vessels. One of the important dimensionless parameters in modeling blood flow is the Reynolds number. She wonders what Reynolds number is associated with the blood flow, and if the flow is laminar or turbulent. The capillary vessel has a diameter of 10^-5 m, and the plasma flows at a speed of 2.25 mm/s.

Determine the Reynolds number for the blood flow in a capillary vessel.

• Assume the blood vessel is not collapsible (i.e., the vessel wall is not deformable, and it maintains the circular cross section).
• The density and viscosity of the blood plasma is 980 kg/m³ and 0.0014 N-s/m², respectively.
• Determine if the flow is laminar or turbulent based on flow in a circular tube model.