Flow through a stenosed artery subject to periodic body acceleration.

Abstract

Hjman bodies may occasionally be subjected to high external accelerations. The response of the vascular system under such situations has recently been the subject of several theoretical and experimental studies. However, little work appears to have so far been carried out on the analysis of blood flow in stenosed artery in the presence of body accelerations. In the paper we present a model of blood flow in a partially occluded tube subject to both the pulsatile pressure gradient due to the normal heart action and the periodic body acceleration. Closed-form solutions have been obtained for the instantaneous rate of flow and for the distributions of flow velocity, acceleration and shear stress over the stenosed length. Computational results corresponding to a stenosed carotid artery are presented and discussed.