Numerical Study of Turbulent Pulsatile Blood Flow through Stenosed Artery Using Fluid-Solid Interaction

The turbulent pulsatile blood flow through stenosed arteries considering the elastic property of the wall is investigated numerically. During the numerical model validation both standard k-epsilon model and RNG K-epsilon model are used. Compared with the RNG K-epsilon model, the standard K-epsilon model shows better agreement with previous experimental results and is better able to show the reverse flow region. Also, compared with experimental data, the results show that, up to 70% stenosis, the flow is laminar and for 80% stenosis the flow becomes turbulent. Assuming laminar or turbulent flow and also rigid or elastic walls, the results are compared with each other. The investigation of time-averaged shear stress and the oscillatory shear index for 80% stenosis show that assuming laminar flow will cause more error than assuming a rigid wall. The results also show that, in turbulent flow compared with laminar flow, the importance of assuming a flexible artery wall is more than assuming a rigid artery wall.