Studies of Blood Flow in Arterial Bifurcations Using Computational Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

The local blood flow in arteries, especially at bends and bifurcations, is correlated with the distribution of atherosclerotic lesions. The flow is three-dimensional, unsteady and difficult to measure in vivo. In this paper a numerical treatment of blood flow in general three-dimensional arterial bifurcations is presented. The flow is assumed to be laminar and incompressible, the blood non-Newtonian and the vessel wall rigid. The three-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations are employed to describe the flow, and a newly developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code AST EC based on finite volume methods is used to solve the equations. A comprehensive range of code validations has been carried out. Good agreement between numerical predictions and in vitro model data is demonstrated, but the correlation with in vivo measurements is less satisfactory. Effects of the non-Newtonian viscosity have also been investigated. It is demonstrated that differences between Newtonian and non-Newtonian flows occur mainly in regions of flow separation. With the non-Newtonian fluid, the duration of flow separation is shorter and the reverse flow is weaker. Nevertheless, it does not have significant effects on the basic features of the flow field. As for the magnitude of wall shear stress, the effect of non-Newtonian viscosity might not be negligible.