颈动脉分支的血流动力学数值模拟

采用有限元法数值模拟颈动脉分支的血流动力学。根据在体测量的实际尺寸来构造颈动脉分支的几何模型,以保持模型的解剖精确度;利用在体测量的颈内动脉和颈外动脉流量波形以及主颈动脉的压力波形来确定数值计算的边界条件,以保持数值计算的生理真实性。关注的重点是颈动脉窦内的局部血流形态、二次流和壁面剪应力。在心脏收缩的减速期和舒张期的某些时刻,颈动脉窦中部外侧壁面附近产生了流动分离,形成了一个低速回流区。该流动分离是瞬态的,导致了壁面剪应力的振荡,其振荡范围在-2～6dyn／cm^2之间。同时,颈动脉窦中部横截面内的二次流存在于整个心动周期,最大的二次流速度为同时刻轴向速度平均值的1／3左右。     

动脉分岔血管内膜增生过程的数值模拟

内膜增生从发生到阻塞血管是一个复杂的变化过程,在这个过程中,内膜的增生、血管腔体形状的改变和血流动力学之间是相互影响的。为了研究这些变化,本文提出一种单元填充方法数值模拟了三维颈动脉分岔血管在低切应力作用下血管内膜增生的过程。该方法既可以克服节点移动方法所不可避免的内膜增生的不连续性,也可以避免网格重划分的困难。结果发现,如果单纯以切应力阈值作为内膜增生的判据,低切应力的作用将无法导致血管完全阻塞,但内膜增生和血流动力学之间的相互影响是可以通过数值方法进行模拟的。在本数值模拟中,内膜增生的过程分为"增厚"(先)和"扩展"(后)两个阶段,最大狭窄率为34.4%,发生在距血管分岔5mm处动脉窦的外侧壁面。其发生位置和形状与临床观察吻合。     

不对称入口速度剖面对两种类型颈动脉分又模型外侧壁切应力的影响

在定常流不对称人口速度剖面条件下,对健康型和致病型颈动脉分叉TF-AHCB模型进行实验和数值模拟研究,发现不对称人口速度剖面的形状对模型外侧壁的低切应力和切应力速度分布有明显影响。在50°模型窦前部的壁面切应力梯度比20°模型高出数倍,当人口速度剖面向颈内动脉偏斜时更可高出10倍以上。这些结果对认识导致动脉粥样硬化斑块的血流动力学因子的影响因素有重要参考价值。     

动脉瘤内流场以及瘤体尺寸的影响的数值研究

采用计算流体动力学(CFD)数值模拟的方法,在周期性脉动速度入流条件下,建立刚性动脉瘤模型并研究了动脉瘤模型中流场的特征(速度、压力、壁面剪切应力)。得到了脉动入流一个周期内流场特征的变化规律,发现动脉瘤的后端有相当高的压力和壁面剪切应力,而且高压力和壁面剪切应力分布的位置几乎是固定的。探讨了不同动脉瘤尺寸对内部流场的影响,动脉瘤的直径与瘤体长度之比越大,瘤壁承受的剪切应力就越大,动脉瘤破裂的危险性就越高。     

动脉狭窄内低密度脂蛋白传输的数值研究：LDL的浓度极化现象

用计算机数值模拟的方法 ,对低密度脂蛋白 ( LDL)在动脉狭窄血管段内的质量传输进行了研究。计算结果表明 ,由于血管壁渗流的存在 ,LDL这样的脂质大分子会聚积在血管的内壁表面 ,发生一种工程上称为浓度极化的现象。LDL浓度在动脉狭窄口后的流动分离点出现峰值。该浓度峰值随雷诺数和动脉狭窄度的增加而呈逐渐下降的趋势。作者认为 ,该区域 LDL浓度的局部升高是引发动脉粥样硬化局部性和动脉狭窄产生的一个非常重要的原因。     

心血管内流场的高质量模拟实验研究（Ⅲ）：动态流体双折射法典型应用分析

用动态流体双折射法对三种有代表性的心血管模型（模拟大血管、动脉狭窄和人造心脏瓣膜）中的脉动血流间隙测试，得出速度剖面，剪应力分布，压力和流量之间的相位关系。结果说明本文所描述的双折射液和模拟血管是适用于心血管内流场的高质量模拟实验的，动态流体双折射方法及简化的光－力学关系是适用于低频脉动模拟血流的定量分析的。     

Numerical studies of blood flow in healthy,stenosed, and stented carotid arteries

Numerical analysis of pulsatile blood flow in healthy, stenosed, and stented carotid arteries is performed with the aim of identifying hemodynamic factors in the initiation, growth, and the potential of leading to severe occlusions of a diseased artery. The Immersed Finite Element Method is adopted for this study to conveniently incorporate various geometrical shapes of arteries without remeshing. Our computational results provide detailed quantitative analysis on the blood flow pattern, wall shear stress, particle residence time, and oscillatory shear index. The analysis of these parameters leads to a better understanding of blood clot formation and its localization in a stenosed and a stented carotid artery. A healthy artery is also studied to establish a baseline comparison. This analysis will assist in developing treatments for diseased arteries and novel stent designs to reduce restenosis. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical simulation of pulsatile non-Newtonian flow in the carotid artery bifurcation

Both clinical and post mortem studies indicate that, in humans, the carotid sinus of the carotid artery bifurcation is one of the favored sites for the genesis and development of atherosclerotic lesions. Hemodynamic factors have been suggested to be important in atherogenesis. To understand the correlation between atherogenesis and fluid dynamics in the carotid sinus, the blood flow in artery was simulated numerically. In those studies, the property of blood was treated as an incompressible, Newtonian fluid. In fact, however, the blood is a complicated non-Newtonian fluid with shear thinning and viscoelastic properties, especially when the shear rate is low. A variety of non-Newtonian models have been applied in the numerical studies. Among them, the Casson equation was widely used. However, the Casson equation agrees well only when the shear rate is less than 10 s-1. The flow field of the carotid bifurcation usually covers a wide range of shear rate. We therefore believe that it may not be sufficient to describe the property of blood only using the Casson equation in the whole flow field of the carotid bifurcation. In the present study, three different blood constitutive models, namely, the Newtonian, the Casson and the hybrid fluid constitutive models were used in the flow simulation of the human carotid bifurcation. The results were compared among the three models. The results showed that the Newtonian model and the hybrid model had verysimilar distributions of the axial velocity, secondary flow and wall shear stress, but the Casson model resulted in significant differences in these distributions from the other two models. This study suggests that it is not appropriate to only use the Casson equation to simulate the whole flow field of the carotid bifurcation, and on the other hand, Newtonian fluid is a good approximation to blood for flow simulations in the carotid artery bifurcation.     

An unsteady analysis of non-Newtonian blood flow through tapered arteries with a stenosis

The problem of non-Newtonian and nonlinear blood flow through a stenosed artery is solved numerically where the non-Newtonian rheology of the flowing blood is characterised by the generalised Power-law model. An improved shape of the time-variant stenosis present in the tapered arterial lumen is given mathematically in order to update resemblance to the in vivo situation. The vascular wall deformability is taken to be elastic (moving wall), however a comparison has been made with nonlinear visco-elastic wall motion. Finite difference scheme has been used to solve the unsteady nonlinear Navier-Stokes equations in cylindrical coordinates system governing flow assuming axial symmetry under laminar flow condition so that the problem effectively becomes two-dimensional. The present analytical treatment bears the potential to calculate the rate of flow, the resistive impedance and the wall shear stress with minor significance of computational complexity by exploiting the appropriate physically realistic prescribed conditions. The model is also employed to study the effects of the taper angle, wall deformation, severity of the stenosis within its fixed length, steeper stenosis of the same severity, nonlinearity and non-Newtonian rheology of the flowing blood on the flow field. An extensive quantitative analysis is performed through numerical computations of the desired quantities having physiological relevance through their graphical representations so as to validate the applicability of the present model.     

Side‐wall effects on the bifurcation of the flow through a sudden expansion

Three‐dimensional computations have been performed to study the flow through a symmetric sudden expansion with an expansion ratio of 3 at low Reynolds numbers. The aspect ratio of the flow channel is allowed to vary within a wide range to examine its influence on the flow which bifurcates from a symmetric state to an asymmetric state. The results reveal that the critical Reynolds number of the symmetry‐breaking bifurcation increases while the aspect ratio is reduced. The flow behaviour near the side walls is illustrated by using limiting streamlines. The origin of the singular points identifiable on the side wall can be traced back to the recirculating flows and the relevant reattachment/separation points in the core of the channel. It is seen that the determination of the exact critical Reynolds number is not trivial because it depends on how to define asymmetric flow. Computations have also been conducted to show that a slight asymmetry in the channel geometry causes a smooth transition from symmetric to non‐symmetric states. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Non‐Newtonian blood flow study in a model cavopulmonary vascular system

A transient haemodynamic study in a model cavopulmonary vascular system has been carried out for a typical range of parameters using a finite element‐based Navier–Stokes solver. The focus of this study is to investigate the influence of non‐Newtonian behaviour of the blood on the haemodynamic quantities, such as wall shear stress (WSS) and flow pattern. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is based on an artificial compressibility characteristic‐based split (AC‐CBS) scheme, which has been adopted to solve the Navier–Stokes equations in space–time domain. A power law model has been implemented to characterize the shear thinning nature of the blood depending on the local strain rate. Using the computational model, numerical investigations have been performed for Newtonian and non‐Newtonian flows for different frequencies and input pulse forms. The haemodynamic quantities observed in total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC) for the above conditions suggest that there are considerable differences in average (about 25–40%) and peak (about 50%) WSS distributions, when the non‐Newtonian behaviour of the blood is taken into account. The lower WSS levels observed for non‐Newtonian cases point to the higher risk of lesion formation, especially at higher pulsation frequencies. A realistic pulse form is relatively safer than a sinusoidal pulse as it has more energy distributed in the higher harmonics, which results in higher average WSS values. The present study highlights the importance of including non‐Newtonian shear thinning behaviour for modelling blood flow in the vicinity of repaired arterial connections. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical study on the bifurcation of vortexes structure for flow in curved tube

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