Non-Newtonian Blood Flow in a Diseased Abdominal Aortic Arterial Segment Under the Effect of an External Magnetic Field: A Numerical Study

Abstract

Numerical simulation of blood flow modeling in cardiovascular system has been one of the most efficient tools in understanding and diagnosing many diseases in the recent few decades. Recent studies have been performed to investigate the effect of the external magnetic fields on the biomagnetic fluids such as blood. There are many applications of magnetic field which are closely related to hemodynamics such as the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices, magnetic drug targeting (MDT) and cell separation. These applications have a direct connection with hemodynamics parameters such as the wall shear stress, pressure drop and recirculation zones. In this study, numerical simulation of blood flow in an abdominal aortic aneurysm under an external magnetic field is performed. Blood is considered as a non-Newtonian fluid with shear-thinning properties, in which the blood viscosity is a function of both shear rate and hematocrits using the Casson model. The three-dimensional axisymmetric flow is considered in the arterial segment. Results at different flow conditions such as the strength of the magnetic field, different inlet velocities and different hematocrits are estimated. The results indicate the significant effect of the magnetic strength on the wall shear stress and the pressure drop which reached 200 % and 600 %, respectively.