Insight into distribution of wall pressure, wall shear stress, and oscillatory shear index: Pulsatile flow of blood subject to Lorentz force

Abstract

The idea of using magnetic field for therapeutic reasons is almost as old as the discovery of magnetism. The application of magnetic field in Biomechanics has become a significant field of research recently. Blood is a biomagnetic fluid and its flow in a cardiovascular system is likely to be affected by the application of an external magnetic field. Present numerical investigation deals with the magnetohydrodynamic flow of blood through a stenosed artery. Non-Newtonian behaviour of streaming blood is characterized by the Carreau viscosity model. Vessel wall flexibility is taken into account. Pulsatile flow of blood is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations along with the mass conservation equation. A finite difference scheme is developed and suitable initial and boundary conditions are imposed to solve these non-linear equations. Distributions of several significant hemodynamic wall parameters, such as wall shear stress, oscillatory shear index, etc. are examined over the entire flow regime with the variations of stenosis height and Hartmann number. Comparison with the Newtonian fluid for these wall parameters are also done. It is found that severe health complications may happen with the advancement of the disease.