On the Shear-Thinning and Viscoelastic Effects of Blood Flow Under Various Flow Rates
Bodnar, T.; Sequeira, Adélia; Prosi, M.
Applied Mathematics and Computation, 217(11) (2011), 5055-5067
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2010.07.054
The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the results of numerical comparative study performed in order to demonstrate and quantify some of the most relevant non-Newtonian characteristics of blood flow in medium-sized blood vessels, namely its shear-thinning and viscoelastic behavior.
The models studied in this work are the classical Newtonian and Oldroyd-B models, as well as their generalized (shear-thinning) modifications. Numerical tests are performed on three-dimensional geometries, namely an idealized axisymmetric stenosis and a realistic stenosed carotid bifurcation reconstructed from medical images. The numerical solution of the system of governing equations is obtained by a finite-volume method on a structured grid. Model sensitivity tests are achieved with respect to the characteristic flow rate to evaluate its impact on the observed non-Newtonian effects.
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