Thixotropy and rheological hysteresis in blood flow

Hemorheology is known to be a major diagnostic tool for many blood-altering diseases. While hemorheological measures of blood, such as the general flow curve, shear-thinning behavior, and its yield stress, are much more studied in detail, thixotropic behavior and thermokinematic memory formation in blood are less understood. Here, we study the thermokinematic memory formation in blood, resulting in a clear sensitivity to the flow history, i.e., thixotropic behavior. We also measure the thixotropic timescale for blood flow using a well-defined flow protocol. Employing a series of in silico flow loops in which the blood is subject to a sweep down/up flow, we measure and discuss the dependence of the thixotropic timescale to the concentration of fibrinogen in the plasma as the main driver of structural evolution under flow.