BLOOD FLOW IN ARTERIAL BIFURCATION CALCULATED BY TURBULENT FINITE ELEMENT MODEL

Abstract

In this paper, numerical analysis of turbulent fluid flow is presented. Finite Element Method is used combining implicit integration with Eulerian spatial formulation, i.e. nodes and geometry are fixed in time. Characteristic values, such as fluid pressure and velocity, kinetic energy, turbulence, and dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy, are calculated in the finite element nodes for each step of the incremental-iterative procedure. For calculation of characteristic values, a two-equation model in the viscous sublayer is implemented. The main goal of our research was development of flexible methodology for application of proposed numerical procedures in the clinical studies. It was achieved in three steps: first was implementation of the turbulent finite element model in in-house solver PAK, the second step was development of the software for customized generation of finite element meshes for biological shapes, and the final step (which was the main focus of this paper) was the analysis of complex blood flow problems inside the bifurcation of arteries. Results shows that the proposed tools and methods can be used by cardiologist or vascular surgeons for investigating the hemodynamic conditions inside patient specific blood vessels. This would allow them better customization of drug treatment and planning of operation if one is needed.