ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the fluid mechanic aspects of thrombus formation. The process of formation of thrombus, known as thrombosis, is an essential mechanism in the process of hemostasis. The formation of venous thrombi is closer to that of blood coagulation and consists mainly of trapped red blood cells and fibrin. The formation period of thrombi is only a few seconds which makes it very hard to experimentally study the stages of thrombosis; it is however, well-accepted that in the early stages of the phenomenon only the platelets take part by adhering to acutely injured vessels. The mechanisms related to formation of thrombi are a complex interaction between flowing blood constituents, the blood vessel walls, and the flow conditions which is sometimes defined incorrectly as deviation of blood flow from a laminar pattern. The more complex phenomenon is the coagulation process in flowing blood which is closely related to a convective diffusion mechanism.
