The non-linear viscous assumption of blood is evaluated through the use of an aqueous xanthan gum blood analog compared to a commonly used Newtonian analog in in vitro models of healthy and stenotic arteries. Pressure drop of unobstructed steady, unsteady, and post-stenotic flows were measured across laminar, transitional and turbulent regimes of Newtonian pipe flow. Results have shown that the non-Newtonian blood analog could delay the onset of transition and extend laminar flow behaviour to a

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... Reynolds number of 3200 which showed on a macroscale level a good agreement with porcine blood. Subsequently, similar delayed transition was observed for unsteady flow at Womersley numbers of 4 and 6. For post-stenotic flows, the Newtonian to non-Newtonian minor loss ratios were lower than the unobstructed arterial model ratios, suggesting an elongation of the recirculation region for the non-Newtonian analog. These findings indicate the importance of the non-Newtonian viscous behaviour of blood on the resultant flow behaviour and cardiovascular pathologies in such environments.