Computational fluid dynamic approach to understand the effect of increasing blockage on wall shear stress and region of rupture in arteries blocked by arthesclerotic plaque

Abstract

Computational bio-mechanics is developing rapidly as a non-invasive tool to assist the medical fraternity to help in both diagnosis and prognosis of human body related issues such as injuries, cardio-vascular dysfunction, atherosclerotic plaque etc. Any system that would help either properly diagnose such problems or assist prognosis would be a boon to the doctors and medical society in general. This project is an attempt to use numerical analysis techniques; in particular, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to solve hemodynamics related problems. The mathematical modeling of the blood flow in arteries in the presence of successive blockages has been analyzed using CFD technique. Different cases of blockages in terms of percentages have been modeled to study the effect of blockage on wall shear stress values and also the effect of increase in Reynolds number on wall shear stress values. The concept of fluid structure interaction (FSI) has been used to study the effect of increasing von Mises stress on arteries and to determine the region of rupture in arteries. The simulation results are validated using in vivo measurement data from existing literature. 2016, UK Simulation Society. All rights reserved.