Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2026 / iii / Paper 334 / 1 / b / i

The Fahraeus--Lindqvist effect is the decrease of blood's apparent or effective viscosity as a microvessel narrows through much of the physiological small-vessel range. Deformable red blood cells migrate away from the wall and concentrate near the centre, creating a cell-free layer of relatively low-viscosity plasma beside the vessel wall. Because the largest shear occurs near the wall, replacing cell-rich blood there by plasma reduces hydraulic resistance particularly effectively. At diameters comparable with a red blood cell, confinement eventually invalidates this decreasing trend.