827 Numerical simulation of oxygen mass transfer in a compliant carotid bifurcation

Abstract

Atherosclerosis is a disease of the coronary, carotid, and the other proximal arteries in the arterial wall. The disease tends to be localized in regions of curvature and bifurcation in arteries where fluid shear stress and other fluid mechanical characteristics deviate from their normal spatial and temporal distribution patterns in straight vessels. Arterial hypoxia in the arterial wall has for many years been implicated in the development of atherosclerosis and has been suggested the key contributing factor to the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. However, there have been very few investigations of oxygen transport processes those are coupled and strongly influenced by local blood flow patterns. In the present study, details of convective-diffusive oxygen transport were examined numerically using an elastic-wall model of human carotid bifurcation. The field of oxygen tension within the bifurcation was shown to closely follow motion of distensible wall and flow field features. Local variations in oxygen transport patterns were significant and much larger in magnitude than those in wall shear stress. Results show that the complex wall geometry varying with time provides substantial local variations in oxygen transfer rates rather than the complex flow field due to secondary flow induced in cross-sections of the internal carotid.