Abstract
Two numerical methods, the lattice Boltzmann and a finite element discretization, are used to investigate blood flow with shear-thinning viscosity in bifurcating vessels reconstructed from medical imaging. The Carreau-Yasuda model is used to reproduce the non-Newtonian shear-thinning behaviour of blood. Higher values are found for the wall shear stress, with peaks for the oscillatory components closer to the walls when compared to corresponding behaviours captured by a Newtonian model.