A mathematical study of turbulent blood flow through an arterial bifurcation.

A turbulent model of flow through an arterial bifurcation is proposed in order to investigate flow separation, secondary flow and the variation of pressure and stress along the wall when blood passes through a bifurcation. Blood is assumed to behave like a Newtonian fluid, with viscosity depending on the angle of bifurcation. The geometry of the models used here for aortic bifurcations is set by employing the principle of conservation of mass. The results show that: the peak axial velocity in the entrance region of the daughter vessel occurs on the inner wall of the bifurcation; a strong secondary flow may develop in the branch, which has much less effect on axial flow when the Reynolds number is low; there is a tendency toward separation in the branch with low mean flow, and the flow is increasingly disturbed as the bluntness of the apex increases.