Turbulence investigation in a laboratory model of the ascending aorta

Abstract

This study aims to investigate turbulence inside a model of the human ascending aorta as a function of the main flow control parameters. For this purpose, we performed a two-dimensional in vitro investigation of the pulsatile flow inside a laboratory model of a healthy aorta by varying both the Reynolds and Womersley numbers. Our findings indicate that the velocity fluctuations become significant particularly during the deceleration phase of the flow, reach the maximum near the systolic peak and then decay during the rest of the diastole phase. Higher levels of turbulence were recovered for increasing Stroke Volumes, in particular maxima of Turbulent Kinetic Energy occurred in the bulk region while higher values of Reynolds shear stresses were found in correspondence of the sinus of Valsalva.

Keywords:

• ascending aorta model
• image analysis technique
• turbulence level

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially funded by the Ministero dell’Istruzione e della Ricerca Scientifica, PRIN 2009[grant number 2009J7BL32].