Noise Field in the Human Chest Due to Turbulent Flow in a Larger Blood Vessel

An acoustic model of a larger human blood vessel is developed. This model takes into account the main features of the acoustic generation and propagation of noise in the human chest from the source (turbulent pressure fluctuations in blood flow) to a receiver resting on the skin, and allows the consideration of a simple stenotic narrowing in the vessel. The low Mach number turbulent wall pressure models of Corcos, Chase, Ffowcs Williams, and Smol'yakov and Tkachenko are used to describe random sources in the vessel. The relationships obtained permit one to analyse the dependence of the resultant acoustic field in the thorax on the parameters of the blood flow and the vessel, and show the possibility of finding characteristic signs of the presence of a stenosis by comparison of noise fields from intact and diseased arteries. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.