Simulation of Blood Flow through Stenosed Artery

Atherosclerosis is a life-threatening disease of the human circulatory system. It can lead to blockage of arteries leading to heart attacks. It is characterized by plaque formation at the walls of the artery lumen. The progression of plaque formation can lead to complete blockage of the artery. The diagnosis of atherosclerosis is very important. So, the study of parameters affecting atherosclerosis is important. We study the effect of percentage blockage and non-Newtonian nature of blood on hydrodynamic factors in an artery that is partially blocked by atherosclerotic plaque. ANSYS Fluent software is used to study these cases. We obtain the velocity profile and wall shear stress profile for 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% blockage. We also study the effect of various blood models like Newtonian, Power law, Carreau, and Cross models on the fluid dynamic factors. Results show that the percentage of stenosis affects the wall shear stress (WSS) the most. WSS is minimum for 10% stenosis, and maximum for 75% stenosis. The fluctuation of WSS, downstream of the stenosis, is also maximum for the case of 75% stenosis and minimum for the case of 10% stenosis. There is formation of a recirculation zone, downstream of the stenosis, for all models at 50% stenosis