text: The fluids associated with the human body include air, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, solvents, solutions, suspensions, serum, lymph, and blood. The major body fluid which acts as the lifeline of the living organisms is "Blood". Blood is an extremely complex biological fluid. It consists of blood cells suspended in plasma and other different types of cells which include white blood cells, platelets etc. The blood flow in arteries and veins are closely linked to the blood vessel properties.
  Carrying the oxygen and nutrients to various tissues and organs of our body, delivering carbon dioxide to the lungs and accepting oxygen, bringing the metabolic by products to the kidneys, regulating the body's defence mechanism, that is, the immune system and facilitating an effective heat and mass transfer across the body are some of the major functions which blood performs in the human body.
  Blood consists of the red blood cells or erythrocytes, white blood cells or leukocytes, and platelets or thrombocytes. The cells which are involved primarily in the transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide are known as Erythrocytes. The cells which are involved primarily in phagocytosis (the process of destruction of unknown particulate matter) and immune responses are known as Leukocytes; thrombocytes are the components of blood which are involved in blood clotting. In addition to these 55 to 60 percent of blood by volume consists of plasma. Plasma is the transparent, amber-colored liquid in which the cellular components of blood are suspended. Plasma contains constituents such as proteins, electrolytes, hormones, and nutrients. The serum is blood plasma from which clotting factors have been removed. Blood accounts for 6 to 8 percent of body weight in normal, healthy humans. The density of blood is slightly greater than the density of water at approximately 1060  kg/m3. The increased density comes from the increased density of a red blood cell compared with the density of water or plasma. 
  Rheology is the study of the deformation and flow of matter. Blood Rheology is the study of blood, especially the properties associated with the deformation and flow of blood. Blood is a non-Newtonian fluid. However, often the non-Newtonian effect is very small due to various reasons. Thus, it is important to know about the blood rheology.
  One of the characteristics of blood that affects the work required to cause the blood to flow through the arteries is the viscosity of blood. The viscosity of blood is in the range of 3 to 6 cP, or 0.003 to 0.006 Ns/m2. Blood is a non-Newtonian fluid, which means that the viscosity of blood is not a constant with respect to the rate of shearing strain. In addition to the rate of shearing strain, the viscosity of blood is also dependent on temperature and on the volume percentage of blood that consists of red blood cells. If blood is made stationary for several seconds then clotting begins in the blood, as a result of which the viscosity of the blood increases. When the stationary state is disturbed with increasing shear rate, the clot formation is destroyed and the viscosity decreases. Moreover, the orientation of red blood cells present in the blood also affects the viscosity of blood. Thus, we can say that blood is a shear thinning fluid, i.e., viscosity decreases with increase in shear rate. Beyond a shear rate of about 100s^-1, the viscosity is nearly constant and the blood behaves like a Newtonian fluid. Blood is a viscoelastic material, i.e., viscous and elastic because the effective viscosity of blood not only depends on the shear rate but also on the history of shear rate. It is also important to note that the normal blood flows much more easily compared to rigid particles, for the same particle volume fraction. This is due to the fact that red blood cells can accommodate by deforming in order to pass by one another.