Computation of blood flow separation and reattachment length on Stenosed artery using Finite Element Method

Abstract

In this article, attention is focused on laminar blood flow simulation in large stenosed arteries. Here, blood flow separation and reattachment points are computed at a range of Reynolds numbers with various percentage of occlusion in the artery. The simulation is carried out under axisymmetric steady laminar flow on a segment of diseased artery with obstruction ratios ranging from 20% to 80% at selected Reynolds numbers from 10 to 1000. The Finite Element Method is employed for the computation of reattachment length finite element meshes are generated using commercial software I-DEAS. We found that the predicted reattachment length increases with grid refinement and is in good agreement with experimental results. It is also observed that increasing Reynolds number has also affected the reattachment length, which shows increasing trend. The numerical calculations are performed up to Re = 1000 in order to maintain stability of the algorithm and to avoid divergence of the solution. SitPak Finite Element Method (FEM) is employed to solve the System of governing equations.