Comparison of blood rheological models for physiological flow simulation

Area of Science:

• Computational hemodynamics
• Fluid dynamics
• Biomedical engineering

Background:

• Accurate simulation of blood flow is crucial for understanding cardiovascular diseases.
• Blood exhibits non-Newtonian fluid behavior, necessitating specialized constitutive models.
• Existing models like Casson, Power-Law, and Quemada capture different aspects of blood rheology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of different blood constitutive equations (Casson, Power-Law, Quemada) on numerical simulations.
• To analyze the flow field and wall shear stress in a channel with a moving boundary, mimicking arterial conditions.
• To compare the simulation outcomes of these models under identical flow rates and varying boundary movement intensities (Strouhal numbers).

Main Methods:

• Utilized computational hemodynamics to simulate blood flow.
• Employed three distinct blood constitutive equations: Casson, Power-Law, and Quemada.
• Simulated flow in a channel with a moving boundary, applying consistent inlet flow rates and varying Strouhal numbers.

Main Results:

• Modeling blood as a non-Newtonian fluid significantly alters both the flow field and wall shear stress.
• The Casson and Quemada models demonstrated good agreement in their simulation of flow effects.
• Differences in constitutive equations lead to notable qualitative and quantitative variations in simulation results.

Conclusions:

• The choice of blood constitutive equation critically influences computational hemodynamics simulations.
• Casson and Quemada models offer comparable predictions for blood flow phenomena in this context.
• These findings highlight the importance of selecting appropriate rheological models for accurate simulation of blood flow in arteries.