Frequency response characteristics of fluid-immersed hairbeds

The glycocalyx is a dense brush-like coating on the surface of our blood vessels: it is implicated in mechanosensing so it plays a role in facilitating and responding to fluid flow and it protects the endothelial lining of the blood vessels from excess shear stresses so it kind of dampens out the force that the fluid exerts on the surface. Patients who have a degraded glycocalyx are more susceptible to cardiovascular diseases so it is an important layer for survival and in our experiment. The goal of our experiment is to have a better understanding of these biological systems. We construct this model system carefully by investigating the optimal parameters of the hair design that most represents this environment as well as influences the fluid flow the greatest. We vary the velocity and the rotor moves back and forth to change the configuration and cause a time dependent reaction. We predict that the more dense and lengthy the hairs are, the more they influence fluid flow. What we found was concurrent with that hypothesis.