Flow of couple stress fluid through stenotic blood vessels.
The effects of an axially symmetric mild stenosis on the flow of blood, when blood is represented by a couple stress fluid model, have been studied. It is found that, for a fixed stenosis size, the resistance to flow and wall shear stress increase as the couple stress parameter eta decreases from unity. A comparison of the results with those of the Newtonian case shows that the magnitude of resistance to flow and wall shear under a given set of conditions, is greater in the case of the couple stress fluid model. It is seen that even in the case of a mild stenosis (19% area reduction), resistance to flow and wall shear values are increased over those for no stenosis by 60% and 62%, respectively, when compared with the case of a Newtonian fluid.
D001775:Blood Circulation; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D001808:Blood Vessels / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D012212:Rheology; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014655:Vascular Resistance