The Experimental Investigation of Flow Separation Downstream of an Axisymmetric Stenosis in Newtonian and Non-Newtonian Flow Environments

The assumption of Newtonian behavior to characterize circulating blood is applicable to large, healthy, arteries of the vasculature. However, at low shear strain rates, blood displays marked non-Newtonian behavior resulting from red blood cell adhesion. Consequently, the consideration of non-linear viscous behavior may be of critical importance to accurately quantify critical hemodynamic parameters in separated flow regimes associated with low shear strain rates (1). Walker et al. (1) measured noteworthy reductions in the propagation of negative axial velocities and oscillatory shear patterns downstream of a stent wire using a non-Newtonian blood analog while Choi and Barakat (2) used CFD to predict non-Newtonian reductions in recirculation length downstream of a backward facing step.