The local irregularity at cellular level around adherent cells was examined using the finite element method by simulating a laboratory rotational flow apparatus. An axisymmetric flow was assumed for the fluid flow and the Navier–Stokes equation in cylindrical coordinate was used to study the fluid behavior under rotational velocity. A modified hyperelastic constitutive model that incorporates the effect of the interaction between cytoplasmic motion and cytoskeleton stretching within a cell was used to describe the mechanical response of adherent cells to the external forces of fluid flow. It was found that the flow pattern around the cells deviates significantly from the laminar flow assumption for the laboratory apparatus. The local irregularities alter the behavior of fluid flow near the cell and induce nonlinearity in velocity and vorticity, which play an important role in quantifying the detachment stresses of cells. A group of curves of the detachment stress versus the radial location of cells was developed based on the finite element simulation under the rotational velocity.