A Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of Blood Clot Motion in a Branch of Pulmonary Arteries

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is one of the most prevalent diseases amid hospitalized patients taking many people's lives annually. This phenomenon, however, has not been investigated via numerical simulations.

In this study, an image-based model of pulmonary arteries has been constructed from a 44-year-old man's computed tomography images. The fluid-structure interaction method was used to simulate the motion of the blood clot. In this regard, Navier-Stokes equations, as the governing equations, have been solved in an arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation.

According to our results, the velocity of visco-hyperelastic model of the emboli was relatively higher than the emboli with hyperelastic model, despite their similar behavioral pattern. The stresses on the clot were also investigated and showed that the blood clot continuously sustained stresses greater than 165 Pa over an about 0.01 s period, which can cause platelets to leak and make the clot grow or tear apart.

It could be concluded that in silico analysis of the cardiovascular diseases initiated from clot motion in blood flow is a valuable tool for a better understanding of these phenomena.