Wall Shear Stress Determination in a Small-Scale Parallel Plate Flow Chamber Using Laser Doppler Velocimetry Under Laminar, Pulsatile and Low-Reynolds Number Turbulent Flows

Abstract

The parallel plate flow chamber (PPFC) has gained popularity due to its applications in fields such as biological tissue engineering. However, most of the studies using PPFC refer to theoretical relations for estimating the wall shear stress (WSS) and, hence, the accuracy of such quantifications remains elusive for anything other than steady laminar flow. In the current study, a laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) method was used to quantify the flow in a PPFC (H = 1.8 mm × W = 17.5 mm, Dh = 3.26 mm, aspect ratio = 9.72) under steady Re = 990, laminar pulsatile (carotid Re0-mean = 282 as well as a non-zero-mean sinusoidal Re0-mean = 45 pulse) and low-Re turbulent Re = 2750 flow conditions. A mini-LDV probe was applied, and the absolute location of the LDV measuring volume with the respect to the wall was determined using a signal monitoring technique with uncertainties being around ±27 μm. The uniformity of the flow across the span of the channel, as well as the WSS assessment for all the flow conditions, was measured with the uncertainties all being less than 16%. At least two points within the viscous sublayer of the low-Re turbulent flow were measured (with the y+ for the first point < 3) and the WSS was determined using two methods with the differences between the two methods being within 5%. This paper for the first time presents the experimental determination of WSS using LDV in a small-scale PPFC under various flow conditions, the challenges associated with each condition, and a comparison between the cases. The present data will be useful for those conducting biological or numerical modeling studies using such devices.