NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF TIME-DEPENDENT NON-NEWTONIAN NANOPHARMACODYNAMIC TRANSPORT PHENOMENA IN A TAPERED OVERLAPPING STENOSED ARTERY

Abstract

Nanofluids are becoming increasingly popular in novel hematological treatments and also advanced nanoscale biomedical devices. Motivated by recent developments in this area, a theoretical and numerical study is described for unsteady pulsatile flow, heat and mass transport through a tapered stenosed artery in the presence of nanoparticles. An appropriate geometric expression is employed to simulate the overlapping stenosed arterial segment. The Sisko non-Newtonian model is employed for hemodynamic rheology. Buongiorno’s formulation is employed to model nanoscale effects. The two-dimensional non-linear, coupled equations are simplified for the case of mild stenosis. An explicit forward time central space (FTCS) finite difference scheme is employed to obtain a numerical solution of these equations. Validation of the computations is achieved with another numerical method, namely the variational finite element method (FEM). The effects of various emerging rheological, nanoscale and thermofluid parameters on flow and heat/mass characteristics of blood are shown via several plots and discussed in detail. The circulating regions inside the flow field are also investigated through instantaneous patterns of streamlines. The work is relevant to nanopharmacological transport phenomena, a new and exciting area of modern medical fluid dynamics which integrates coupled diffusion, viscous flow and nanoscale drug delivery mechanisms.