Abstract
We studied the effectiveness of an approach using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and multiobjective optimization to investigate the relevance of hemodynamic factors to regulate artery radius at bifurcation region. Five factors were chosen: a) to minimize maximum Wall Shear Stress (WSS), b) to maximize minimum WSS, c) to minimize WSS gradient, d) to minimize WSS temporary gradient, e) to minimize summation of artery radius. We set six combinations of these factors (test cases) which were found trade-off relationship. After performing optimization with CFD in each test case, we compared the optimized shapes with the original shape. Applied this process to seven typical carotid artery bifurcation shapes (actual cases), the relevance of each combination factors was evaluated. As the results, the test case of combination factors of a) and e) was the best, in which the original shape was one of the optimized shapes in all actual cases. In other five test cases, each original shape was not included in the optimized shapes in more than three actual cases. This method differentiated the relevance of selected factors. We confirmed this approach effectively evaluates the relevance of factors to artery bifurcation shapes.
