Development of a Blood Flow Model and Validation Against Experiments and Analytical Models

In cardiovascular research, FSI is expressed by the interaction of the blood with the vessel or the heart. FSI plays a crucial role when the deformation of the boundary, in this case the vessel wall, cannot be neglected. Arterial blood flow and wave propagation in liquid filled vessels has been investigated by many researchers. Their work comprises computational, theoretical and experimental investigations and will be outlined below. This paper presents the development and validation of an arterial blood flow model. The model has been developed using finite elements and the fluid and the solid are coupled using the ALE method. This method allows moving boundaries without the need for the mesh movement to follow the material. In this paper both straight and tapered aortic analogues are included in the investigation. The pressure, pressure gradient, fluid flow and wall distension obtained from the finite element model is compared with an unique experimental data set and analytical theory. There is a good agreement between the computational, analytical and experimental results.