DescriptionThere has been a wealth of research conducted regarding the partitioning of red blood cells (RBC) at bifurcations within the microvasculature. In previous studies partitioning has been characterized as either regular partitioning, in which the higher flow rate daughter channel receives a proportionally larger percentage of RBCs, or reverse partitioning, in which the opposite occurs. This thesis presents a study of RBC partitioning in networks of increasing complexity from a single bifurcation to a Wheatstone bridge inspired network. A variety of variable such as reservoir hematocrit, bifurcation angle, and network topology. Through this research significant discoveries were made in the areas of quantifying RBC lingering, elucidating causes of reverse partitioning in highly confined vessels, and the effect of network topology on hematocrit distribution. This information is of significant importance in understanding perfusion within the microvasculature. Furthermore, the tools and metrics to enable future study and analysis in more complex and physiologically relevant networks were developed. Ultimately, with further development this platform and analysis tools could be utilized as a model to study a disease, drug delivery, and organ microvasculature for use in artificial organ development.