Pulsatile flow of thixotropic blood in artery under external body acceleration

• Published in: Computer methods in biomechanics and biomedical engineering Vol. 26; no. 8; pp. 927 - 940
• Main Authors: Cheffar, Louiza, Benslimane, Abdelhakim, Sadaoui, Djamel, Benchabane, Adel, Bekkour, Karim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Taylor & Francis 11.06.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Acceleration; Arteries; Axisymmetric flow; Biotechnology; blood; Blood flow; Blood Flow Velocity - physiology; Blood pressure; Computer Simulation; Constitutive equations; Constitutive relationships; Equations of motion; Exact solutions; external acceleration; External pressure; Finite difference method; Fluid flow; Humans; Incompressible flow; Laminar flow; Life Sciences; Models, Cardiovascular; Pipe flow; pulsatile flow; Pulsatile Flow - physiology; Shear stress; Stress distribution; Stress, Mechanical; Thixotropic; Velocity; Velocity distribution; Wall shear stresses; Thixotropic; pulsatile flow; external acceleration; blood
• ISSN: 1025-5842; 1476-8259; 1476-8259
• DOI: 10.1080/10255842.2022.2098677

This work presents a numerical technique for simulating non-Newtonian blood flow in human's arteries driven by an oscillating pressure gradient. The blood is considered as a thixotropic fluid and its structural properties are considered to obey Moore's thixotropic model as a constitutive equation. The equations of motion are simplified considering the flow laminar, axisymmetric and the fluid incompressible. A numerical solution is presented using finite difference method in order to compute the velocity field and wall shear stress distribution. The numerical results obtained have been validated with the analytical solution available in the literature. Furthermore, the effect of the structural properties, the average of the pressure gradient and the external acceleration on the velocity and wall shear stress distribution is investigated. These results reveal the influence of the different parameters studied on the pipe flow response of the thixotropic fluid.