The physiological inflammation response depends upon the multibody interactions of blood
cells in the microcirculation that bring leukocytes (white blood cells) to the vessel walls. We
investigate the fluid mechanics of this using numerical simulations of 29 red blood cells and
one leukocyte flowing in a two-dimensional microvessel, with the cells modeled as linearly
elastic shell membranes. Despite its obvious simplifications, this model successfully
reproduces the increasingly blunted velocity profiles and increased leukocyte margination …