Structural details of boundary layer separation in a model human carotid bifurcation under steady and pulsatile flow conditions.

We have used a dye-flow visualization technique to analyze the substructure of flow separation in a plastic model of the human carotid bifurcation under steady and pulsatile flow. Under steady conditions at a physiologic flow split (Q external carotid/Q common carotid = 0.30) and Reynolds number (500), a large region of separated fluid developed along the outside wall of the sinus, opposite the flow divider. Yellow dye injected into the boundary layer upstream from the bifurcation traveled slowly along the wall of the common carotid and entered directly into the separation. Blue dye injected into the central, high-velocity streamlines in the common carotid impacted on the flow divider, then traveled circumferentially and entered the separation. Mixing of these two sources was documented by the appearance of green fluid, which lingered in the region of separation. Pulsatile flow resulted in a smaller region of separation; mixing still occurred. Flow separation at the carotid bifurcation is a site of mixing of fluids previously subjected to prolonged low-shear wall contact and brief high-shear wall contact. Separation is itself a site of low shear, but this study reveals a mechanism whereby low and high shear may act independently or synergistically to explain the link between flow separation and atherogenesis.