Blood Flow in Clogged Artery Project Description

The present problem simulates the blood flow in a clogged artery using ANSYS Fluent software. In this modeling, a number of horizontal vessels are designed in which there is a curved blockage in the middle of the blood flow path. The defined blood flow inside this vessel has a density of 1035 kg.m-3 and a viscosity of 0.0043 W.m-1.K-1. To draw a vessel in the present work, a curved line is defined. This curve line is defined based on the Gaussian function as follows. This Gaussian function represents the change in the value of the radius of the vessel along the horizontal axis of the vessel.

This function depends on the horizontal coordinates (z) and its clogging percentage (st) is equal to 0.90 and its slope (σ) in the clogged region is equal to 0.85. Blood flow enters the vessel with a mass flow rate of 0.013662 kg.s-1. The aim of the present study was to investigate the difference in pressure created in the blood flow path inside the vessel due to clogged vessel.

Clogged Artery Geometry & Mesh

The present model is designed in three dimensions using Design Modeler software. This model consists of a three-dimensional vessel in the middle of which there is a blockage. To draw this clogged vessel, a curved line is used that rotates around its central axis. To define this curve line, a file contains a set of points with specific coordinates are imported. This vessel is cylindrical and has a length of 0.18 m and a diameter of 0.004 m.

We carry out the meshing of the model using ANSYS Meshing software, and the mesh type is structured. The element number is 431156. The following figure shows the mesh.

CFD Simulation

We consider several assumptions to simulate the present model:

• We perform a pressure-based solver.
• The simulation is steady.
• The gravity effect on the fluid is ignored.

The following table represents a summary of the defining steps of the problem and its solution:

Results

At the end of the solution process, we obtain two-dimensional and three-dimensional contours related to pressure, velocity and pressure gradient. Also, a graph of changes in the amount of static pressure along the central axis of this horizontal vessel is obtained. To draw the corresponding diagram, we have defined the longitudinal direction without dimension. The results show that the greatest amount of pressure drop occur in the passage through the clogged area.