Magnetic particle capture for biomagnetic fluid flow in stenosed aortic bifurcation considering particle–fluid coupling

Abstract

Magnetic nanoparticles drug carriers continue to attract considerable interest for drug targeting in the treatment of cancer and other pathological conditions. Guiding magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with the help of an external magnetic field to its target is the basic principle behind the Magnetic Drug Targeting (MDT). It is essential to couple the ferrohydrodynamic (FHD) and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) principles when magnetic fields are applied to blood as a biomagnetic fluid. The present study is devoted to study on MDT technique by particle tracking in the presence of a non uniform magnetic field in a stenosed aortic bifurcation. The present numerical model of biomagnetic fluid dynamics (BFD) takes into accounts both magnetization and electrical conductivity of blood. The blood flow in the bifurcation is considered to be incompressible and Newtonian. An Eulerian–Lagrangian technique is adopted to resolve the hemodynamic flow and the motion of the magnetic particles in the flow using ANSYS FLUENT two way particle–fluid coupling. An implantable infinitely long cylindrical current carrying conductor is used to create the requisite magnetic field. Targeted transport of the magnetic particles in a partly occluded vessel differs distinctly from the same in a regular unblocked vessel. Results concerning the velocity and temperature field indicate that the presence of the magnetic field influences the flow field considerably and the disturbances increase as the magnetic field strength increases. The insert position is also varied to observe the variation in flow as well as temperature field. Parametric investigation is conducted and the influence of the particle size (dp), flow Reynolds number (Re) and external magnetic field strength (B0) on the “capture efficiency” (CE) is reported. The difference in CE is also studied for different particle loading condition. According to the results, the magnetic field increased the particle concentration in the target region. Analysis shows that there exists an optimum regime of operating parameters for which deposition of the drug carrying magnetic particles in a target zone on the partly occluded vessel wall can be maximized. The results provide useful design bases for in vitro set up for the investigation of MDT in stenosed blood vessels.