EFFECT OF ASYMMETRY AND ROUGHNESS OF STENOSIS ON NON-NEWTONIAN FLOW PAST AN ARTERIAL SEGMENT

Abstract

Numerical investigations of non-Newtonian blood flow are carried out through an asymmetric arterial constriction (stenosis) obtained from casting of mildly stenosed artery [Back et al. [1984] Effect of mild atherosclerosis on flow resistance in a coronary artery casting by man, J. Biomech. Eng., Trans. ASME106, 48]. The Marker and Cell method, for governing equations of motion for the flow in primitive variables formulations is developed in a staggered grid to discretize the momentum equations representing the non-Newtonian viscous incompressible flow characterized by the generalized Power-law model in cylindrical coordinates system under axial symmetric conditions so that the problem effectively becomes two-dimensional. The modified pressure equation has been solved by Successive-Over-Relaxation method and the pressure–velocity correction formulae have been derived. Satisfactory level of convergence namely, the mass conservation of the order of 0.5 × 10-12 and consequently the steady-state criteria have been achieved. The separation points, reattachment points, pressure drop, and the wall shear stress distribution resulting from the present simulation agree well with the available numerical and experimental results. Secondary separation has also been predicted at higher Reynolds numbers. Further, in-depth study of the flow patterns reveals that shear-thickening model of generalized Power-law fluid experiences excess pressure drop more than that of shear-thinning model as in the case of flow past through cosine and smooth-shaped constrictions than irregular ones. The efficiency of the numerical code is illustrated by applying it to a test problem in order to validate the applicability of the technique as well as the simulation under consideration.