Effects of variable viscosity on pulsatile flow of blood in a tapered stenotic flexible artery

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to investigate the effects of variable viscosity on incompressible laminar pulsatile flow of blood through an overlapping doubly constricted tapered artery. To mimic the realistic situation, wall of the artery is taken to be flexible, and physiologically relevant pulsatile flow is introduced. The governing equations of blood flow are made dimensionless. A coordinate transformation is used to make the overlapping doubly constricted wall geometry of tube to a straight tube. Taking advantage of the Stream function–Vorticity formulation, the system of partial differential equations is then solved numerically by finite difference approximations. Effects of Reynolds number, Strouhal number, degree of contraction, tapering angle, and viscosity parameters are presented graphically and analyzed. The results show that formation of stenosis and tapering disturb the flow field significantly, and degree of stenosis is more important in influencing blood flow compared with tapering.