Effect of angulation and Reynolds number on recirculation at the abdominal aorta-renal artery junction

Abstract

We investigate the effect of renal artery angle variation and Reynolds number on the probability of formation of atherosclerosis-prone regions at the abdominal aorta-renal artery junction. The rheologically accurate shear-thinning Yeleswarapu model for blood is used to simulate flow in a 3-Dimensional T-junction whose dimensions are those of the human abdominal aorta-renal artery junction. The recirculation length and wall shear stresses are evaluated at the junction for steady, laminar flow using ANSYS FLUENT v14.5. The recirculation length and wall shear stresses are calculated for Reynolds number of 500–1500, and the angle of renal artery (with the horizontal axis) of −20° to +20°. Computational fluid dynamics analysis for the flow conditions used in present study show that the flow recirculation and low wall shear stress regions overlap at the top surface of renal artery downstream of the entrance and at the curved surface of abdominal aorta downstream of the junction, making these regions susceptible to atherosclerosis. Further investigations show that positive angles of renal artery have larger area of recirculation and larger low wall shear stress regions. The recirculation length increases with Reynolds number, and it is maximum when θ = +20°, and minimum when θ = −20°.