Large Eddy Simulation of a Stenosed Artery Using a Femoral Artery Pulsatile Flow Profile

Abstract

Computational fluid dynamics simulation of stenosed arteries allows the analysis of quantities including wall shear stress, velocity, and pressure; detailed in vivo measurement is difficult yet the analysis of the fluid dynamics related to stenosis is important in understanding the likely causes and ongoing effects on the integrity of the vessel. In this study, a three-dimensional Large Eddy Simulation is conducted of a 50% occluded vessel, with a typical femoral artery profile used as the transient inlet conditions. The fluid is assumed to be homogenous, Newtonian and incompressible and the walls are assumed rigid. The stenosis is axisymmetric, however the three-dimensional study allows for a flow field that is not axisymmetric and results show significant three-dimensionality. High values of wall shear stress and oscillatory values of wall shear stress (varying in both space time) are observed. The results of the study give insight into the time-varying flow structures for a mildly stenosed artery and indicate that three-dimensional simulations may be important to gain a complete understanding of the flow field.

Simulation of a pulsatile non-Newtonian flow past a stenosed 2D artery with atherosclerosis

“…Although blood is shear thinning, non-Newtonian flow is qualitatively similar to Newtonian flow at lower Reynolds numbers [12][13][14], and flow pulsatility tends to suppress the growth of turbulence [45]. However, blood flow past severely stenosed arteries could be turbulent [20,3]. In our current work the modeling and simulation are performed in two dimensions, and turbulence in 2D and 3D is qualitatively different [33]; therefore we do not consider possible turbulence effects when the vessel is severely stenosed.…”

Resting myocardial blood flow quantification using contrast‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging in the presence of stenosis: A computational fluid dynamics study

“…In most CFD studies of the hemodynamics in stenotic vessels, a fixed velocity profile is assigned at the inlet. [28][29][30][31] While the inflow of blood may be assumed to be relatively unaffected by insertion of a mild stenosis, this assumption is no longer valid for high-grade stenoses such as the ones used in this study. 32,33 On the other hand, direct measurement of in vivo flow profiles with and without stenosis is difficult.…”

A computational study on spiral blood flow in stenosed arteries with and without an upstream curved section

“…For the k-ω models, inlet turbulence intensity of 3.8%, and 5% are considered for experimental validation. The inlet perturbations in LES were generated using the vortex method ( [28]) and the magnitude of these artificial Barber and Simmons [18] and Gårdhagen et al [17].…”

“…see Ghalichi et al [6], Varghese and Frankel [7], Lee et al [8,9] and Li et al [10]) to study the axisymmetric stenotic flow. In the context of LES applications, most recent studies include Varghese et al [11], Paul et al [12,13,14,15], Tan et al [16], Gårdhagen et al [17] and Barber and Simmons [18].…”