3D manufacturing of intracranial aneurysm biomodels for flow visualizations: low cost fabrication processes

There is a continuous search for better and more complete in vitro models with mechanical properties closer to in vivo conditions. In this work a manufacturing process, based on a lost core casting technique, is herein reported to produce aneurysm biomodels to perform experimental hemodynamic studies. By us- ing real artery images combined with a lost core casting technique, three materials were tested: paraffin, beeswax and glycerin-based soap. All in vitro biomodels were compared according to their transparency and final structure. Additionally, comparisons between experimental and numerical flow studies were also performed. The results have shown that the biomodels produced with beeswax and glycerine-based soap were the most suitable in vitro models to perform direct flow visualizations of particulate blood analogue fluids. The biomodels proposed in this works, have the potential to provide further insights into the complex blood flow phenomena happening at different kinds of pathologies and answer to important hemodynamics questions that otherwise cannot be tackled with the existing in vitro models.This work has been supported by FCT –Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/0 0319/2020 , UIDB/04077/2020 , UIDB/0 0690/2020 and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030171 , funded by COMPETE2020, NORTE 2020, PORTUGAL 2020 and FEDER, R.A and C.F.acknowledge the support of Junta de Extremadura through Grants GR18175 and IB16119 (partially financed by FEDER) This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 798014. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 828835 .