A viscoelastic fluid-structure interaction model for carotid arteries under pulsatile flow

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Cardiovascular Mechanics

Background:

• Arterial walls exhibit viscoelastic properties crucial for hemodynamic function.
• Accurate modeling of blood flow requires considering the interaction between fluid and arterial structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model for carotid artery blood flow.
• To incorporate viscoelastic arterial wall behavior using Prony series derived from in vivo data.
• To enable application to realistic arterial geometries and pathological conditions.

Main Methods:

• Developed a computational fluid-structure interaction (FSI) model.
• Incorporated viscoelasticity of the arterial wall using Prony series for shear and bulk moduli.
• Applied the model to an idealized carotid artery under pulsatile flow.
• Validated against analytical solutions for wall displacements.

Main Results:

• The coupled FSI model accurately predicts the viscoelastic behavior of carotid arteries.
• Numerical and analytical solutions for wall displacements showed good agreement.
• Radial displacement differences between FSI and solid-only viscoelastic models were found to be negligible.

Conclusions:

• The developed FSI model is capable of simulating pulsatile blood flow in viscoelastic carotid arteries.
• The model provides a robust tool for analyzing arterial mechanics under various physiological and pathological conditions.
• Viscoelasticity plays a significant role, but its impact on radial displacement is comparable between FSI and solid-only models in this context.