Circumferential Residual Stress Distribution and Its Influence in a Diseased Carotid Artery

Residual stresses are present in a variety of biological tissues, such as the arteries [1]. It is believed that residual stress tends to make stress distribution more uniform throughout normal arterial wall [2]. However, the influence of residual stress in a diseased artery remains unclear. The aim of this study is to investigate the circumferential residual stress in a diseased carotid artery (atherosclerotic plaque) and its influence on the stress distribution under normal blood pressure loading. To achieve a more realistic stress analysis, an anisotropic non-linear material properties based on ANSYS™ framework with parameter constants, obtained according to Gasser et al [3], was used for all simulations in the study.