The Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics and Solid Mechanics to Haemodynamics in Arterial Organs and to Related Problems

Abstract

Abstract Cardiovascular haemodynamics forms an important current class of medical research. Over the last ten years, as the current generation of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes have been developed, so they have been applied to arterial problems and have been demonstrated to be a valuable and reliable tool in this area. This paper will discuss a range of topics in our efforts to correlate haemodynamics to risk factors underlying the genesis and progression of cardiovascular disease. In the course of discussion, the state of art of CFD is described and its application in blood flows demonstrated. Furthermore, our approach has been extended to incorporate solid mechanics into haemodynamic studies so as to address the problems in a. more realistic and comprehensive manner. To obtain predictions which can reflect the real situations in the human body, image and data processing software has been developed to take raw clinical data from Magnetic Resonance Imaging and interface it with the CFD code. As the vessels become smaller in size, so wall effects increase in complexity, and we give relevant data from a major study of nanoscale fluid problems in human biology. Cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis are known to be influenced by blood flows in terms of their genesis and progression (1, 2]. In order to in vestigate what is a complex mechanism a broad knowledge of detailed arterial flow phenomena is necessary. Modern techniques such as ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging enable measurements of pulsatile blood velocities to be undertaken. However, accurate assessment of wall shear stress, which is of considerable physiological interest, is quite difficult.