Inside each of us is a remarkable and constant flow, driven by a muscle that’s always at work. As blood circulates through our bodies, it goes through a surprisingly varied journey. In the heart, as seen above, blood flow is very unsteady and quite turbulent, due to the beating pulse of the heart. As valves open and close and the muscle walls constrict and relax, the rushing blood moves in eddy-filled spurts. In the outer reaches of our capillaries, however, the nature of the flow is quite different. Thanks to smaller vessel sizes and other factors, capillary blood flow is much steadier and more laminar. Viscosity becomes more important, as do the non-Newtonian properties of components in our blood. (Image credit: mushin111/YouTube, source; via Science; submitted by Gary N.)
Flow Inside the Heart
