Effects of fluid recirculation on mass transfer from the arterial surface to flowing blood

The effect of disturbed flow on the mass transfer from arterial surface to flowing blood was studied numerically,and the results were compared with that of our previous work.The arterial wall was assumed to be viscoelastic and the blood was assumed to be incompressible and non-Newtonian fluid,which is more close to human arterial system.Numerical results indicated that the mass transfer from the arterial surface to flowing blood in regions of disturbed flow is positively related with the wall shear rates and it is significantly enhanced in regions of disturbed flow with a local minimum around the reattachment point which is higher than the average value of the downstream.Therefore,it may be implied that the accumulation of cholesterol or lipids within atheromatous plaques is not caused by the reduced efflux of cholesterol or lipids,but by the infiltration of the LDL(low-density lipoprotein) from the flowing blood to the arterial wall.