Study of Pulsatile Non-Newtonian Blood Flow Through Abdominal Aorta and Renal Arteries Incorporating Fluid- Structure Interaction

Background: the interaction between the blood and the vessel wall is of greatclinical interest in studying cardiovascular diseases, the major causes of death indeveloped countries.objective: to understand the effects of incorporating fluid-structure interactioninto the simulation of blood flow through an anatomically realistic model of abdominalaorta and renal arteries reconstructed from ct images.methods: the fluid is assumed to be incompressible and non-newtonian and thevessel wall is set to have isotropic elastic properties. the blood flow is assumed tobe periodic; therefore, a real pulsatile flow velocity in the entrance of the abdominalaorta of a healthy adult is measured via laser doppler anemometry and used inthis study. the effects of wall flexibility, both rigid and compliant models were alsosimulated.results: comparison of the rigid model with compliant model reveals that velocityand pressure drop in flexible arteries is less than those in rigid arteries. as wallshear stress plays an important role in the function of the cardiovascular system as ithas immediate effect on the endothelial histology, the wall shear stress was analyzed;the rigid model wall shear stress magnitude was higher than that in the compliantmodel. it was also observed that the peak values of wall shear stress in this studywere not high enough to be able to damage and strip the endothelial cells. displacementsof vessel walls were also studied; it was found that the wall displacement duringthe systole was higher than the diastole.conclusion: incorporating fluid-structure interaction and considering vessel walldeformations in studying blood flow through arteries have notable effects on bloodflow characteristics.