Hemodynamic study in 3D printed stenotic coronary artery models: experimental validation and transient simulation

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease that can significantly reduce blood supply to vital organs, being one of the main causes of death worldwide. In this work, a numerical and experimental study in 3D printed stenotic coronary arteries, considering both steady and pulsatile blood flow conditions, is presented. The results revealed that a degree of stenosis superior to 50% creates disturbed flows downstream of the contraction, with an accented increase in the wall shear stress measurements at the stenosis throat. Finally, the multiphase mixture was investigated and compared with a single-phase modelling, and only slight differences were observed right after the stenosis throat. 

Keywords:

• Atherosclerosis
• blood flow
• CFD
• multiphase flow
• turbulence modeling
• validation

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/04077/2020.

Disclosure statement

Dr. Costa is CEO, CTO, and shareholder of the company Biofabics Lda.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020, UIDB/04077/2020. In addition, this project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 798014, and it has also received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 828835.