Abstract
In order to investigate flow characteristics of chicken blood in a micro tube of 100$\mu$m in diameter, in-vitro experiments were carried out using a micro-PIV technique. The micro-PIV system consists of a microscope, 2-head Nd:YAG laser, 12 bit cooled CCD camera and a delay generator. Chicken blood with 40% hematocrit was supplied into a micro tube using a syringe pump. The blood flow shows clearly the cell free layer near the tube wall and its thickness is increased with increasing the flow speed. The hemorheological characteristics of chicken blood, including shear rate and shear stress were estimated from the PIV velocity field data obtained. Since the aggregation index of chicken blood is less than 50% of human blood, non-Newtonian flow characteristics of chicken blood are smaller than those of human blood. As the flow rate increases, the degree of flatness in the velocity profile at the center region is decreased and the parabola-shaped shear stress distribution becomes to have a linear profile. Under the same flow rate, chicken blood shows higher shear stress, compared with human blood.