The Influence of Internal Carotid Artery Off-plane Angle on the Hemodynamics of Blood Flow in the Carotid Artery

The geometry of the carotid artery (IC) is thought to have a major role in causing blood flow related diseases in this artery. With age, different geometrical changes are observed to occur. These changes include: diameter, bifurcation angle, and internal carotid off-plane angle. The current study focuses on the changes that happen to the off-plane angle of the internal carotid artery to investigate the hemodynamic parameters that are thought to lead to the formation of plaques and atherosclerosis in this artery. Physiological values found in literature are used to compare vorticity and velocity fields for elderly and young people. Steady, three dimensional CFD computations were performed. Inlet velocity of 0.3 mm/sec, with no slip boundary conditions and rigid walls are used. The results showed that as the age or off-plane increases, the flow abnormalities and vorticity values increase. At the apex, the velocity values were the maximum near the inner wall, while at the mid and in the second half of the sinus, the velocity values were minimal and show back flow with higher values of vorticities. These results of the current study indicated that as the off-plane angle increases, as in elderly people, diseases of blood flow, such as atherosclerosis and unfavorable plaques, have higher probability to occur in such complicated artery. (C) 2019 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved