Numerical Investigation of Hemodynamic Performance of a Stent in the Main Branch of a Coronary Artery Bifurcation

The effect of a bare-metal stent on the hemodynamics in the main branch of a coronary artery bifurcation with a particular type of stenosis is numerically investigated by the Computational Fluid Dynamics. Three-dimensional idealized geometry of bifurcation has been constructed in Catia modelling commercial software package. The Newtonian blood flow is assumed to be incompressible and laminar. Computational Fluid Dynamics has been utilized to calculate the shear stress and blood pressure distributions on the wall of main branch. In order to do the numerical simulations, a commercial software package named as COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3, has been employed. Two types of stent, namely, one-part stent and two-part stent have been applied to prevent the build-up and progression of the atherosclerotic plaques in the main branch. A particular type of stenosis in the main branch have been considered in this research. It occurs before and after the side branch. It was found that the main branch with an inserted one-part stent has the smallest region with the wall shear stress below 0.5 Pa which is the minimum wall shear stress in the main branch without the stenosis. It is recommended to use a one-part stent in the main branch of a coronary artery bifurcation for the aforementioned type of stenosis in it.