Affiliations: Imperial College, Mechanical Engineering Department, London, UK | Imperial College, Department of Bioengineering, London, UK
Note: [] Address for correspondence: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, Mechanical Engineering Department, London SW7 2BX, UK. Tel.: +44 207 594 7134; Fax: +44 207 594 7017; E‐mail: [email protected].
Abstract: Blood flow through arteries represents a very complex, fluid–structure interaction (FSI) problem. Strong coupling between the blood and artery is due to the relatively low stiffness of the artery compared to that of blood. Hence, the pressure exerted by the flowing blood on the artery wall can result in considerable deformations of the artery, and vice‐versa, arterial deformations can in turn affect the blood flow. In the present work, the finite volume method is employed to solve the problem where compressible fluid, representing blood, flows in healthy arteries as well as in unhealthy, i.e., partly stiffened arteries. The stiffening of the arterial wall is assumed to be the first key stage in the development of atherosclerosis. The comparison between various deformation profiles of healthy and unhealthy arteries demonstrates significant and measurable differences, in particular in the radial direction. This is hoped to help toward establishing procedures for early diagnosis of the disease.
