WALL SHEAR STRESSES IN A FLUID–STRUCTURE INTERACTION MODEL OF PULSE WAVE PROPAGATION

Abstract

In our prior paper, a fluid–structure interaction model of pulse wave propagation, called the elastic tube model, has been developed. The focus of this paper is wall shear stress (WSS) in this model and the effects of different parameters, including rigid walls, wall thickness, and internal radius. The unsteady flow was assumed to be laminar, Newtonian and incompressible, and the vessel wall to be linear-elastic isotropic, and incompressible. A fluid–structure interaction scheme is constructed using a finite element method. The results demonstrate the elastic tube plays an important role in WSS distributions of wave propagation. It is shown that there is a time delay between the WSS waveforms at different locations in the elastic tube model while the time delay cannot be observed clearly in the rigid tube model. Compared with the elastic tube model, the increase of the wall thickness makes disturbed WSS distributions, however WSS values are increased greatly due to the decrease of the internal radius. The results indicate that the effects of different parameters on WSS distributions are significant. The proposed model gives valid results.