News and Events

• The Research Unit Pulseflow organized an international workshop about “Instabilities, Bifurcations and Migration in Pulsatile Flows”, which was held from 23rd to 25th September 2024 in Oldenburg, at the Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg in northern Germany. Overall, around 40 researchers attended the three-day workshop, consisting of 11 invited presentations and 9 contributed talks.
  International researchers in the fields of cardiovascular and pulsatile flows discussed recent progress and exchanged ideas on how to solve open challenges. The topics of the workshop included:

• instability and transition to turbulent in pulsatile flows
  
• fluid-structure interaction in unsteady flows
  
• particle migration in unsteady flows
  
• patient-specific CFD
  
• Erythrocyte dynamics
  



The Research Unit warmly thanks the contributing speakers and the local committee from the Carl von Ossietzky Universität for their welcome and support in organizing the talks and the social events! The participants had the chance to visit the wind tunnel on Monday, and enjoyed a lovely boat tour from Dangast on Tuesday. Overall, we had a rich workshop full with exchanged ideas and the latest results from cutting-edge experts of Europe and America.
The organizing committee would like to thanks again the invited speakers who made it successfully to the workshop and shared their deep insight on pulsatile and/or blood flows:

• Prof. Dominik Obrist
  
• Prof. Melissa Brindise
  
• Prof. Lisa Prahl Wittberg
  
• Prof. Stavroula Balabani
  
• Prof. Chaouqi Misbah
  
• Prof. Dmitry Fedosov
  
• Prof. Emilie Dressaire
  
• Prof. Annie Viallat
  
• Dr. Marketa Kubankova
  
• Prof. Simon Mendez
  



We would also like to thank all the contributed speakers, for their outstanding contribution to the workshop and the research field.

• 13. Seminar:
• Yazdan Rashidi from Saarland University, and
  
• Berin Becic from University of Bayreuth
  
• Date: January 11, 2024
  
• Time: 14:30 - 16:00
  


• 12. Seminar:
• Shoaib Kamil from Institute of Science and Technology Austria, and
  
• Patrick Keuchel from University of Bremen
  
• Date: November 8, 2023
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 11. Seminar:
• Steffen Recktenwald from Saarland University, and
  
• Katharina Gräßel from University of Bayreuth
  
• "Cell-free layer dynamics of red blood cells in a constricted microchannel under time-dependent flow conditions - experiments and simulations"
  
• Date: December 6, 2022
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 10. Seminar:
• Prof. Dr. Christian Wagner from Saarland University, and
  
• Prof. Dr. Björn Hof from Institute of Science and Technology Austria
  
• Focus session on elastic flow instabilities
  
• Date: November 23, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 9. Seminar:
• Greta Simionato from Saarland University, “Red blood cells in vivo: The best movie trailers of 2021”
  
• Katharina Gräßel from University of Bayreuth, “Single red blood cell dynamics in time-dependent flow through microchannels”
  
• Date: July 20, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 8. Seminar:
• Prof. Abdul Barakat from Ecole Polytechnique, France, “Engineering dumb and smart blood vessels”
  
• Date: June 1, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 7. Seminar:
• Greta Simionato and Yazdan Rashidi from Saarland University, “In vivo influence of lingering on the partitioning of RBCs in the microcirculation”
  
• Date: April 20, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 6. Seminar:
• Daniel Morón from University of Bremen, “Stability and Transition in pulsatile flows with physiological waveform”
  
• Othmane Aouane from Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg, “Inertial migration and particles ordering in cylindrical channels”
  
• Date: March 17, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 5. Seminar:
• Bastian Bäuerlein from University of Bremen, “Pipe flow experiment to study the influence of pulsation on the particle dynamics”
  
• Steffen Recktenwald from Saarland University, “Tracking of red blood cells in a comoving frame during time-dependent microfluidic flows”
  
• Date: February 3, 2021
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  


• 4. Seminar:
• Katharina Gräßel from University of Bayreuth, “Shapes of red blood cells in pulsating flow”
  
• Till Zeugin from ETH Zurich, “In vitro analysis of the aortic blood flow after a 3D-printed aortic valve - preliminary results”
  
• Date: October 30, 2020
  
• Time: 10:00 - 11:00
  


• 3. Seminar:
• Greta Simionato and Alexis Darras from Saarland University, “Characterization of blood flow in vivo: The hamster as an animal model”
  
• Marc Avila from University of Bremen, “Resonances in pulsatile channel flow with elastic walls”
  
• Date: September 8, 2020
  
• Time: 11:00 - 12:00
  


• 2. Seminar:
• Othmane Aouane from Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg, “Migration of spherical particles in steady and pulsatile parabolic flows”
  
• Steffen Recktenwald from Saarland University, “Optimizing pressure driven pulsatile flows in microfluidic devices”
  
• Date: July 14, 2020
  
• Time: 11:00 - 12:00
  


• 1. Seminar:
• Michael Riedl from Institute of Science and Technology Austria, “Chaotic interactions on and inside an endothelial monolayer”
  
• Daniel Morón from University of Bremen, “Transition to turbulence in pulsatile flows with physiological waveform”
  
• Date: June 3, 2020
  
• Time: 14:00 - 15:00
  

On September 18-19, 2023, the FOR 2688 Research Unit hosted a real-life meeting at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria.

On the first day, spokesman Prof. Christian Wagner from Saarland University and hosting Prof. Björn Hof from IST Austria started the meeting with a few welcoming words and an overview of our new objectives for the second funding period. The subsequent scientific session focused on red blood cell dynamics, including presentations from Saarland University, University of Bayreuth, and Saarland University Medical Center. In the afternoon, three talks on turbulent flows and instabilities were presented by the teams of ETH Zürcih, Bremen University and Oldenburg University. Afterwards, the Research Unit visited the closeby Stift Klosterneuburg and tasted its famous local wine production.
The second day consisted of talks from IST Austria and Helmholtz Insitute Erlangen-Nürnberg, about instabilities in pulsatile pipe flow and collective particle/cell flows. Following a fruitful discussion session, the Reserach Unit visited the experimental installations of PI Prof. Björn Hof.
The meeting then ended with a last round of informal but exciting discussions around a common lunch and coffee, foreseeing further dynamic collaborations for the second funding period. Several PIs and team members shared their research and continued to exchange ideas at the nearby X International Conference on Computational Bioengineering, that took place the following days at TU Wien.

On September 23., 2022, the FOR 2688 Research Unit met again in person for the evaluation of his first funding period and funding renewal.
The PIs and team members met already on the evening of Thursday 22nd to bolster the team spirit before the evaluation that started on Firday 23rd at 9am. The day started with a round of presentations by the PIs, followed by questions and discussions with the DFG evaluation committee. The lunch time was the occasion for the other team members to display posters on their results, followed by a last round of questions from the evaluation committee.

From October 3. to 6., 2021, the FOR 2688 Research Unit hosted a real-life meeting at the University of Bremen.

On the first day, spokesman Prof. Christian Wagner from Saarland University started the meeting with an overview of the goals and achievements of the Research Unit. The subsequent scientific session focused on red blood cell and endothelial cell dynamics, including presentations from IST Austria, Saarland University, University of Bayreuth, and Saarland University Medical Center. Our external guest Prof. Abdul Barakat from Ecole Polytechnique, France, highlighted the morning session with his presentation on "Mind the gap: endothelial cell dynamic responses to topographic surfaces." In the afternoon, the Research Unit visited the lab of PI Dr. Kerstin Avila and the Bremen Drop Tower at the Center of Applied Space Technology and Microgravity (ZARM).
The second day started with talks from Ph.D. students and postdocs from IST Austria, University of Bremen, Helmholtz Insitute Erlangen-Nürnberg, and ETH Zurich on transitions and instabilities in pulsatile pipe flow. Following a fruitful discussion session, the day closed with a walk through Bremen's Bürgerpark and a coffee tasting at Lloyd Caffee, the oldest, still traditionally roasting coffee roastery in Bremen.
On Wednesday, the Bremen meeting ended with a detailed and engaging discussion on future joint projects between the different groups and universities.

The kick-off meeting of the research unit took place from 12.02. to 14.02.2020 in the very midst of the magnificent mountain world of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

The meeting started with an overview of the research goals and objectives by the spokesperson Christian Wagner, followed by short introductions of the different projects by the corresponding PIs. In the evening, a torch-lit walk through the remarkable Partnach Gorge, designated a natural monument, was organized.
On the second day of the meeting Kristian Valen-Sendstad, guest and senior research scientist at SIMULA Research Laboratories Norway, opened the morning session with an inspiring talk about ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of “Patient-Specific” CFD’. Talks of the Ph.D. students and postdocs from the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, University of Bremen, ETH Zurich, and Saarland University completed the session. In the afternoon, the unit undertook a journey to Germany´s highest peak the Zugspitze at 2.962 m above sea level. Although the Top of Germany welcomed the attendees with winds gusting up to 130 km/h, the fascinating view over 400 mountain peaks in four countries more than compensated for that.
The last day closed with scientific contributions by Ph.D. students and postdocs from Bremen and Saarland University, followed by a talk about ‘Combining a scientific career and starting a family’, given by PI Kerstin Avila.

The meeting provided a great opportunity for the PIs and students of the different groups to engage in fruitful discussions about current and future projects of the research unit in one of the most scenic places in Germany.