Newtonian and non-Newtonian blood flow at a 90°-Bifurcation of the cerebral artery: A comparative study of fluid viscosity models

S. V. Frolov, S. V. Sindeev, D. Liepsch, A. Balasso, P. Arnold, J. S. Kirschke, S. Prothmann, A. Yu Potlov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

The majority of numerical simulations assumes blood as a Newtonian fluid due to an underestimation of the effect of non-Newtonian blood behavior on hemodynamics in the cerebral arteries. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of non-Newtonian blood properties on hemodynamics in the idealized 90°-bifurcation model, using Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids and different flow rate ratios between the parent artery and its branch. The proposed Local viscosity model was employed for high-precision representation of blood viscosity changes. The highest velocity differences were observed at zones with slow recirculating flow. During the systolic peak the average difference was 17-22%, whereas at the end of diastole the difference increased to 27-60% depending on the flow rate ratio. The main changes in the viscosity distribution were observed distal to the flow separation point, where the non-Newtonian fluid model produced 2.5 times higher viscosity. A presence of such high viscosity region substantially affected the size of the flow recirculation zone. The observed differences showed that non-Newtonian blood behavior had a significant effect on hemodynamic parameters and should be considered in the future studies of blood flow in cerebral arteries.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1850043
JournalJournal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology
Volume18
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2018

Keywords

  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • cerebral arteries
  • circle of Willis
  • non-Newtonian fluids

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