Evaluation of the Effect of Stent Strut Profile on Shear Stress Distribution

In this work, we present a 2D numerical flow study to analyze the impact of different stent strut profiles on the shear stress distribution for stented coronary arteries. In that context, five cross-sectional profiles were considered: square, circular, elliptical, and a two tear-drop shapes. Specific performance metrics based on the statistical moments were developed to assess the variation of shear stress distributions along the wall with respected to a normal reference condition (non-stented segment). The results show that stent strut profile significantly affects the shear stress distribution along the wall. It also demonstrate that more streamline profiles such as the tear-drop and elliptical profiles exhibit better performance than the standard square and circular profiles for shear stress.