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Published on: July 19, 2016
Numerical investigation of blood flow in a deformable coronary bifurcation and non-planar branch
Seyed Esmail Razavi1, Amir Ali Omidi2, Massoud Saghafi Zanjani3
1Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran ; Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz Iran.
Insights
This study shows that compliant arterial walls and larger bifurcation angles reduce wall shear stress in coronary arteries, potentially impacting arterial stenosis development. Understanding these hemodynamic factors is crucial for cardiovascular disease research.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular fluid dynamics
- Biomedical engineering
- Computational hemodynamics
Background:
- Arterial stenosis, a common cardiovascular disease, is influenced by blood flow hemodynamics.
- Coronary artery bifurcations are critical sites for stenosis development.
- Realistic modeling requires considering pulsatile flow, non-Newtonian blood, and compliant arterial walls.
Purpose of the Study:
- To numerically investigate pulsatile blood flow in a coronary bifurcation with a non-planar, compliant wall.
- To analyze the impact of non-Newtonian blood properties and bifurcation angles on hemodynamic characteristics.
- To identify areas of low shear stress prone to stenosis.
Main Methods:
- Simulated 3D, incompressible, laminar blood flow using the Carreau-Yasuda model for non-Newtonian shear thinning.
- Evaluated hemodynamic parameters in a coronary bifurcation model with varying angles and compliant walls.
- Focused on flow characteristics and identified low wall shear stress regions.
Main Results:
- Compliant arterial walls resulted in lower wall shear stress compared to rigid walls.
- Bifurcation angle significantly impacts wall shear stress distribution.
- Outer walls of bifurcations consistently exhibited lower wall shear stress.
Conclusions:
- Hemodynamic factors like wall compliance and bifurcation angle critically influence blood flow in coronary arteries.
- Lower wall shear stress in compliant vessels and specific bifurcation geometries may predispose to arterial stenosis.
- Findings highlight the importance of considering vessel wall mechanics and geometry in understanding cardiovascular disease.
Introduction:
Among cardiovascular diseases, arterials stenosis is recognized more commonly than the others. Hemodynamic characteristics of blood play a key role in the incidence of stenosis. This paper numerically investigates the pulsatile blood flow in a coronary bifurcation with a non-planar branch. To create a more realistic analysis, the wall is assumed to be compliant. Furthermore, the flow is considered to be three-dimensional, incompressible, and laminar.
Methods:
The effects of non-Newtonian blood, compliant walls and different angles of bifurcation on hemodynamic characteristics of flow were evaluated. Shear thinning of blood was simulated with the Carreau-Yasuda model. The current research was mainly focused on the flow characteristics in bifurcations since atherosclerosis occurs mostly in bifurcations. Moreover, as the areas with low shear stresses are prone to stenosis, these areas were identified.
Results:
Our findings indicated that the compliant model of the wall, bifurcation's angle, and other physical properties of flow have an impact on hemodynamics of blood flow. Lower wall shear stress was observed in the compliant wall than that in the rigid wall. The outer wall of bifurcation in all models had lower wall shear stress. In bifurcations with larger angles, wall shear stress was higher in outer walls, and lower in inner walls.
Conclusion:
The non-Newtonian blood vessels and different angles of bifurcation on hemodynamic characteristics of flow evaluation confirmed a lower wall shear stress in the compliant wall than that in the rigid wall, while the wall shear stress was higher in outer walls but lower in inner walls in the bifurcation regions with larger angles.
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