Three-dimensional (3D) direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) has been used to simulate flow in a straight microchannel using an in-house parallelized code. In the present work, a comparative study of seven boundary conditions is carried out with respect to time required for achieving steady-state, accuracy in predicting the specified pressure at the boundaries, and the total simulation time required for attaining a statistical error within one percent. The effect of changing the Knudsen number, pressure ratio (PR), and cross aspect ratio (CAR) on these parameters is also studied. The presence of a boundary is seen to affect the simulated pressure in a cell when compared to the specified pressure, the difference being highest for corner cells and least for cells away from walls. All boundary conditions tested work well at the inlet boundary; however, similar results are not obtained at the outlet boundary. For the same cell size, the schemes that employ first- and second-order corrections lead to a smaller pressure difference compared to schemes applying no corrections. The best predictions can be obtained by using first-order corrections with finer cell size close to the boundary. For most of the simulated cases, the boundary condition employing the characteristic scheme with nonequilibrium effect leads to the minimum simulation time. Considering the nonequilibrium effect, prediction of inlet and outlet pressures and the speed of simulation, the characteristic scheme with nonequilibrium effect performs better than all the other schemes, at least over the range of parameters investigated herein.
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) is a multi-factorial pathological event that occurs in the human body. In the present work, the hemodynamics pertaining to AAA are numerically analyzed. To comprehend the blood flow phenomenon in a double-fusiform aneurysm, axisymmetric simulations of pulsatile non-Newtonian blood flow are performed using OpenFOAM. The Carreau–Yasuda model is used to evaluate the non-Newtonian behavior of blood. The Reynolds number and Womersley number are altered as per the physiologically applicable range to characterize the hemodynamics. The Dilatation Index is also varied to quantify the consequence of different enlargements of the abdominal aorta on the blood flow. Four hemodynamic indicators—time-averaged wall shear stress, Oscillatory Shear Index (OSI), Relative Residence Time (RRT), and vascular impedance—are used to identify several complications such as atherosclerosis, vascular inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and hyperplasia. As the pulse rate increases, the chances of particle stagnation inside the aneurysm decrease due to lower RRT. Our results suggest that patients with hypoxia or bradycardia (low Womersley number) are more susceptible to atherosclerosis due to the high value of RRT. Thus, we recommend mild exercise for patients with AAA. After analyzing the hemodynamic indicators, % of area with RRT > 0.5 is identified as the critical parameter to propose a regime map. Low pulse rates are found to be critical at low flow rates, whereas high pulse rates are found to be critical with high flow rates. Furthermore, it is found that the severity increases as the size of the aneurysm increases.
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