Simulation of transient blood flows in the artery with an asymmetric stenosis

Abstract

© Austral. Mathematical Soc. 2008. This article focuses on the transient behaviour of blood ow in stenotic arteries. Human blood is modelled as an incompressible non-Newtonian uid. A numerical technique based on the finite element method is developed to simulate the blood ow taking into account of the transient periodic behaviour of the blood ow in cardiac cy-cles. The ow pattern, the distribution of pressure and the wall shear stresses, are computed. The results show that the pulsatile pressure and the time variation of wall shear rate have patterns similar to that for the pulsatile velocity during the cardiac cycles. On the back toe of the stenosis there exists a small recirculation region which causes the direction of the wall shear stress in some part to oscillate, likely lead-ing to atherosclerotic disease. The back toe is thus an ideal location for applying a clot dissolving drug.