Human body
Blood vessels carry blood throughout the body, which moves because of the beating of the heart. Venules and veins collect blood low in oxygen from tissues throughout the body. These collect in progressively larger veins until they reach the body's two largest veins, the superior and inferior vena cava, which drain blood into the right side of the heart. From here, the blood is pumped into the lungs where it receives oxygen and drains back into the left side of the heart. From here, it is pumped into the body's largest artery, the aorta, and then progressively smaller arteries and arterioles until it reaches tissue. Here blood passes from small arteries into capillaries, then small veins and the process begins again. Blood carries oxygen, waste products, and hormones from one place in the body to another. Blood is filtered at the kidneys and liver.
Biofluid dynamics
The Heart, arteries, and veins (a network of tubes to carry blood) constitute the cardiovascular system or circulatory system of our body which transports the blood throughout the body. The heart can be thought of as a muscular pump, consisting of four chambers, and pulsatile muscles which pump and circulates the blood through the vasculature. Arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and veins make up the vasculature. The cardiovascular system circulates about 5 liters of blood at a rate of approximately 6 l/m. The pulmonary and the systemic circulations are the two parts of the vasculature. The pulmonary circulation system consists of the network of blood vessels from the right heart to the lungs and back to the left heart. The rest of the blood flow loop is called systemic circulation system. The pulmonary and systemic circulations take the blood through large arteries first and then branches into smaller arteries before reaching arterioles and capillaries. After capillaries, the blood enters the venules before joining smaller veins first and then larger veins before reaching the right heart. Thus completing the cycle of blood going to heart and then coming from it and going to all parts of the body.
The tricuspid valve, right heart (right ventricle), pulmonary valve, pulmonary artery, lungs, pulmonary veins and right heart are the elements of the Pulmonary Circulation System. The process of gas exchange, that is, exchange of carbon dioxide with oxygen in the lungs is the main function of the pulmonary system. The de-oxygenated blood from the right ventricle is pumped to the lungs where the capillaries surrounding the alveole sacks exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen. The red blood cells and the hemoglobin present in the blood, which is the main carrier of oxygen in the blood are responsible for this exchange of gases before they are carried to the left ventricle of the heart. The systemic circulation is responsible for taking the oxygenated blood to various organs and tissues via the arterial tree before taking the deoxygenated blood to the right ventricle using the venous system (a network of veins). Arteries carry the oxygenated blood while the veins carry the deoxygenated blood.