Investigation of Pulsatile Blood Flow Interaction with a Viscoelastic Artery and Its Effect on Atherosclerosis

The purpose of this research is to numerically investigate the interaction of pulsatile flow of blood with an axisymmetric artery in various percentages of stenosis. The Carreau non-Newtonian model and the generalized Maxwell rheological model were used to model the blood fluid and the viscoelastic wall of arterial, respectively. The innovation of the present research is modeling of viscoelastic wall for the artery and non-Newtonian fluid for blood to study atherosclerosis. The results were compared with previous reliable data to investigate the validation and accuracy of owr simulation. This showed good agreements. In this study, the effects of stenosis severity on velocity profile, pressure distribution, wall shear stress, and radial displacement have bewere analyzed for viscoelastic artery and they were compared with an elastic artery. A growth in the stenosis severity leads to the increase of the length of vortices, wall shear stress, and velocity gradient after stenosis regions. Also, for severe stenosis in viscoelastic arteies, compared to the elastic arteries, the maximum values of velocity profile and radial displacement of arterial wall increases 2 percent and decreases 22 percent, respectively. Development of atherosclerosis increases the elastic modulus and causes 64 percent reduction in radial displacement of the artery walls. Also, with growth of 5 times in the elastic modulus, a 11 percent increase in velocity magnitude and a 12 percent growth in pressure value of the blood flow were observed.