The numerical design of a parallel plate flow chamber for investigation of endothelial cell response to shear stress

Parallel plate chambers are frequently used to examine the response of biological cells to a constant wall shear stress. However, the stress can vary more than 80% across the chamber due to end effects. Earlier estimates of the magnitude of this inhomogeneity used boundary layer theory and experiments. Here, the full equations for steady, three-dimensional flow in a novel parallel plate device were solved numerically and used to identify an active test region where the shear stress is within 5% of a constant value. Endothelial cells can be confined to this region to assure a nearly uniform shear stress exposure.