Computational simulation of an artery narrowed by plaque using 3D FSI method: influence of the plaque angle, non-Newtonian properties of the blood flow and the hyperelastic artery models

Abstract

Currently, cardiovascular diseases related to atherosclerosis are among the universal primary reasons for mortality. Artery stenosis is the narrowing of the artery, due to the formation of atheromatous plaque in the arterial tunica intima, a region of the blood vessel located between the endothelium and the tunica media. In the present paper, the blood flow is modeled in a stenosed artery, and the dynamic behavior of the atherosclerosis phenomenon is studied using computational analyses. To accomplish this aim, 3D finite element method (FEM) for modeling structural sections (including plaque and artery) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for modeling fluid part (blood flow) are coupled through a fluid-structure interaction (FSI). It is shown that the results of present FSI analysis are in good agreement with the available data in the literature. The influences of plaque geometry, in particular, plaque angle and percentage of stenosis, are investigated. Also, the effects of Newtonian and non-Newtonian properties of the blood flow and different hyperelastic artery models, including Ogden and Polynomial, are analyzed. The simulations show that with an increasing angle of the plaque, the stress of the artery increases, while the velocity of the blood flow decreases.