Healthy kidneys are able to filter toxins from one's blood and remove excess fluid from one's body. Kidney dialysis is a process that performs the work of kidneys that cannot function normally. During the process of hemodialysis, blood from the patient's body is run through a dialysis cartridge through very thin hollow fibers made of a semi- permeable membrane. Waste and water travel from the blood, through the pores of the membrane, and into a fluid called dialysate. We attempt to model the velocities and pressures of blood plasma and dialysate in a dialysis cartridge, as well as to model the concentration of blood cells. We find that varying the pressure in the dialysate moves the location at which the maximum blood cell concentration occurs. We also find that the maximum blood cell concentration is directly proportional to the product of the blood cell Peclet number and the permeability of the membrane.

Creator

• Haas, Kathleen

Contributors

• Tilley, Burt S.

Degree

• MS

Unit

• Mathematical Sciences

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Language

• English

Identifier

• etd-042810-195415

Keyword

• dialysis

Advisor

• Tilley, Burt S.

Defense date

• 2010-04-29

Year

• 2010

Date created

• 2010-04-28

Resource type

• Report

Rights statement

• In Copyright