• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.21 no.3 s.61
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• pp.261-271
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• 2000

The present study investigated flow dynamics of a two-dimensional abdominal aortic bifurcation model under sinusoidal flow conditions considering wall motion. impedance phase angle(time delay between pressure and flow waveforms), and non-Newtonian fluid using computational fluid dynamics. The wall shear stress showed large variations in the bifurcated region and the wall motion reduced amplitude of wall shear stress significantly. As the impedance phase angle was changed to more negative values, the mean wall shear stress (time-averaged) decreased while the amplitude (oscillatory) of wall shear stress increased. At the curvature site on the outer wall where the mean wall shear stress approached zero. influence of the phase angle was relatively large. The mean wall shear stress decreased by $50\%$ in the $-90^{\circ}$ phase angle (flow wave advanced pressure wave by a quarter period) compared to the $0^{\circ}$ phase angle while the amplitude of wall shear stress increased by $15\%$. Therefore, hypertensive patients who tend to have large negative phase angles become more vulnerable to atherosclerosis according to the low and oscillatory shear stress theory because of the reduced mean and the increased oscillatory wall shear stresses. Non-Newtonian characteristics of fluid substantially increased the mean wall shear stress resulting in a less vulnerable state to atherosclerosis.