Effect of pulsatility on oxygen transport to the human arterial wall

Oxygen transfer in fully-developed, pulsating, laminar flow in rigid and distensible tubes was simulated as part of a study of vessel-wall hypoxia and atherogenesis. The model used for the computations is based on dimensions and flows in the human thoracic aorta. The pulsatile velocity fields employed are based on those of Womersley with the modification that the radial convection is written relative to the moving wall. Womersley-type pulsatility, superposed on an axial Poiseuille flow, was found to negligibly affect oxygen transport to the wall. Caution should be exercised, however, in extending this conclusion to the complex pulsatility in actual living vessels.