The distribution of fluid forces on model arterial endothelium using computational fluid dynamics

Numerical calculations are used in conjunction with linear perturbation theory to analyze the problem of laminar flow of an incompressible fluid over a wavy surface which approximates a monolayer of vascular endothelial cells. These calculations model flow conditions in an artery very near the vessel wall at any instant in time, providing a description of the velocity field with detail that would be difficult to identify experimentally. The surface pressure and shear stress distributions are qualitatively similar for linear theory and numerical computations. However, the results diverge as the amplitude of surface undulation is increased. The shear stress gradient along the cell model surface is reduced for geometries which correspond to aligned endothelial cells (versus nonaligned geometries).