Pulsatile casson fluid flow through a stenosed bifurcated artery

Abstract

Flow of a pulsatile Casson fluid through a stenosed bifurcated artery has been investigated in this study. The arteries forming bifurcation are assumed to be symmetric and straight cylinders of finite length and it is also assumed that the outer and inner walls of the bifurcated artery undergo wall motion. The governing momentum equation is written in terms of the shear stress, and the resulting equation along with the initial and boundary conditions are solved numerically. The crucial parameters that influence the flow in the bifurcated artery are the radius of the parent artery and the length of the stenosis in addition to the curvature at the different sections of the bifurcated tube. Flow variables are computed at various locations in the parent and daughter arteries. The velocity is derived from the shear stress using the Casson fluid model. The velocity and the volumetric flow in both the parent and daughter arteries are computed for various parameters. It is observed in both the femoral and coronary arteries that the variation of axial velocity and the flow rate with yield stress is uniform, and flow rate in the daughter artery shows more oscillations with the Casson fluid model than that with the Newtonian one. The effect of flow rheology on the velocity pattern in the daughter artery is greater than in the parent artery. The axial velocity and flow rate are greater in the coronary artery than in the femoral artery, and the wall shear stress in the parent artery increases due to the stenosis. © 2009 Begell House, Inc.