Simulation of a pulsatile non-Newtonian flow past a stenosed 2D artery with atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerotic plaque can cause severe stenosis in the artery lumen. Blood flow through a substantially narrowed artery may have different flow characteristics and produce different forces acting on the plaque surface and artery wall. The disturbed flow and force fields in the lumen may have serious implications on vascular endothelial cells, smooth muscle cells, and circulating blood cells. In this work a simplified model is used to simulate a pulsatile non-Newtonian blood flow past a stenosed artery caused by atherosclerotic plaques of different severity. The focus is on a systematic parameter study of the effects of plaque size/geometry, flow Reynolds number, shear-rate dependent viscosity and flow pulsatility on the fluid wall shear stress and its gradient, fluid wall normal stress, and flow shear rate. The computational results obtained from this idealized model may shed light on the flow and force characteristics of more realistic blood flow through an atherosclerotic vessel.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, 2301 Vanderbilt Place, Nashville, Tennessee 37235-1592, USA. fangbao.tian@vanderbilt.edu
Fang-Bao
FB
Tian
Luoding
L
Zhu
Pak-Wing
PW
Fok
Xi-Yun
XY
Lu
D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001809:Blood Viscosity; D003251:Constriction, Pathologic / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008955:Models, Cardiovascular; D032389:Myocytes, Smooth Muscle / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D058226:Plaque, Atherosclerotic / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D013312:Stress, Physiological
Atherosclerosis; Blood flow; Computational fluid dynamics; Modeling and simulation; Navier–Stokes equations; Non-Newtionian fluid; Pulsatile flow; Stenosis; Wall normal stress; Wall shear stress