Simulation of Blood Flow through Arteries Afflicted with Atherosclerosis

Simulation of Blood Flow through Arteries Afflicted with Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is a major cause of death and morbidity in our society. It refers to the hardening of arteries due to plaque buildup. This can cause complications throughout the body including the heart, arms & legs, or kidneys. The purpose of this experiment was to study how occlusion size affects the blood flow physics within arteries afflicted with atherosclerosis. CFD analysis was utilized to simulate blood flow through an artery with varying occlusion levels.

All simulations performed in this study imposed a Newtonian, viscous model, with laminar flow conditions and the following material parameters: the physical properties for blood were used with density = 1.6g/cm3 and dynamic Viscosity = 3.5 cp. A zero relative-pressure condition was also applied at the outlet. In addition, a no slip boundary condition was prescribed to the artery walls. In all the CFD simulation runs, the models were analyzed once a convergence criteria of 1x10-9 for the momentum and continuity equations were achieved. The results showed increased unidirectional flow as the occlusion size decreased. Higher blockages showed downstream flow areas composed of vortices and higher wall shear stress variability.