Mechanical Evaluation for the Growth and Rupture of Aneurysm in Abdominal Aorta

Abstract

Mechanical evaluation is performed for the growth and rupture of aneurysms in the human abdominal aorta, making use of mechanical factors which largely affect the deformation and stress distribution in the vascular wall. The intrinsic factors of the wall, i. e., the maximum diameter and the wall thickness in the unloaded state, as well as external factor, i. e., the blood pressure, are adopted for the finite-element analysis of the deformation and stress in the aneurysm in the abdominal aorta. The results of the analysis show that the increase in the initial diameter and the reduction of the wall thickness due to the progress of the aneurysm lead to large wall stress which is comparable to the strength of the wall. High blood pressure also makes the wall stress increase more rapidly, especially when the aneurysm grows to a great extent, though the difference in the shape of the aneurysm is difficult to distinguish by sight. © 1992, The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers. All rights reserved.