Modeling of stents exhibiting negative Poisson's ratio effect

Abstract

Intravascular stents are metallic scaffolding structures deployed in the stenotic arteries to restore the lumen for the blood flow to the down stream tissues. Most stents are balloon expandable and are deployed from its crimped state through a balloon catheter. The efficacy of the stenting procedure mainly depends on the way the stent is deployed. Both numerical and experimental evaluations show that almost all the present day stents undergo the most undesirable effects namely: (i) longitudinal foreshortening: the axial contraction in the length, and (ii) dogboning: flaring of the distal edges, during the radial expansion of the stents. Due to the foreshortening effect, clinicians are forced to select stents longer than the plaque. Still, the final length of the stent depends on the amount of radial expansion, which is subjective during the procedure. This paper introduces a new stent model called “Murugan”, which exhibits negative Poisson's ratio effect. That is, the stent may have zero axial contraction or can have extension when under radial expansion. The presence of hyperelastic balloon and the stent–balloon friction is also considered to study their effects in mechanical properties of the stents under consideration. Free expansion analysis is done using finite element method (FEM) to compare the new stent model with the present day stent geometries.