Mathematical Modeling with Experimental Verifications of Non-invasive Blood Flow Acquired Using the Method of Magnetic Disturbance

Abstract

Blood flow is an important human physiological signal commonly used for the understanding of the individual physical health. Current methods of non-invasive blood flow sensing require direct contact or access to the human skin. Most of these instruments tend to be large and bulky. In addition, the performance of such instrument varies with time and is subjective to human body fluids (e.g. blood, perspiration and skin-oil) and environmental contaminants (e.g. mud, water, etc). This paper describes a novel method of non-invasive blood flow sensing through modeling, simulation and experimental verifications. Using formula derived from Maxwell equations, the magnetic coupling between the magnetic particles in the blood and the applied magnetic field are simulated in COMSOL. In addition, parameters for blood, skin and air were extracted from existing publications for computational needs. The modeling and simulation of the non-invasive method of blood flow acquisition is concurrently validated using data acquired from experimental measurements. Results obtained from the simulation model correlates well with experimental results through the measurement on changes of the amplitude of the pulse signal during localized occlusion. As such, it can be concluded that the simulation model developed is a good representation of the physical measurements and can be used for future optimization of performance for the magnetic method for blood flow acquisition.