Investigation effect of arterial stenosis on shear stress and blood flow characteristics: computational fluid dynamics study

Occlusion of the coronary arteries is one of the most important causes of death and permanent complications in the body. Stiffening of the vessel wall or atherosclerosis is the main cause of clogged arteries. Therefore, the objective of the current research was to investigate the influence of coronary artery stenosis on blood flow to the arteriole of the heart through physical modeling. In the present research, the effect of stenosis in the coronary artery was studied, assuming two types of platelets: cubic and cylindrical. The modeling and analysis were done using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Blood was considered a non-Newtonian fluid, and the hypotheses of a fully developed area at the vessel entrance were used. Then, the influence of different parameters, such as platelet type and the presence of stents, on the characteristics of intravascular blood flow, including pressure distribution, shear stress, and blood velocity, was studied. The results show that the type of platelets and the presence of stents have a significant effect on the characteristics of intravenous blood flow. The maximum pressure created in a stent with a cube-shaped platelet and cylindrical platelets is 180 Pa and 172 Pa, respectively, and the maximum pressure in the case of cylindrical platelets is about 5% less than the presence of a cubic platelet. Furthermore, due to the higher amount of shear stress in the cube-shaped platelet artery, it can be said that the occurrence of this clogging in the vessel has much more serious risks and the risk of cardiovascular disease increases.