Phillip Lee 9/25/09 BMED 3300

Modeling Blood Flow with Matlab

For creating a model of blood flow through a human vessel, some important assumptions must be made. Many of these are quantitative simplifications and are listed as shown:
(density of blood) = 1000 (assumed to be equivalent to water) -3 1 (viscosity of blood) = 3.5*10
2

Diameter of blood vessel = 4.8 mm

The pressures that the blood vessels were subjected to were defined by two scenarios: (1) 120/80 mmHg at 1 Hz for 14 days and (2) 600/300 mmHg at 1 Hz for 3 days. These two oscillating pressures were characterized by respective cosine functions that were translated to create peaks at the higher pressure value and troughs at the lower pressure value. When converted to Pascals, the cosine functions become: (1) 13332.239 + 26666.447*cos (2 t) Pa (2) 59995.075 + 19998.35*cos (2 t) Pa It is important to note that the time durations associated with each pressure were ignored for the model because a perfect system that experiences no fatigue was considered. This is primarily because the goal of this model is to determine the velocity profile and initial shear rates due to the blood flow through the vessel rather than rates or times of failure. Other than these quantitative assumptions, some broader assumptions must be made to create a working environment for the model. Specifically, it must be assumed that the blood flow through a 4.8 mm diameter vessel can be characterized by viscid, incompressible, and laminar flow. The reasons for these assumptions are so that calculations for the velocity profile can be made using the Navier-Stokes equation (1.1), which requires these conditions.
+ =

(1.1)

Evaluation the velocity profile of blood in a vessel of 4.8 mm diameter was done using Matlabs pde tool.

Figure 1 Screenshot of inputs into Matlabs pde toolbox

The equation used by pde tool is merely a rearrangement of the Navier-Stokes equation with pressure (f) on the right side of the equation. After defining the correct parameters based on the assumptions previously described (c = viscosity, a = gravity, f = pressure, d = density), the velocity profiles were generated as:

Figure 2 2D velocity profile of blood flow: Velocity in m/s is color coded on bar to the right of each graph. The left graph depicts velocity profile for 120/80 mmHg and right graph depicts velocity profile for 600/300 mmHg.

The faster velocities are shown in purple with the slower velocities shown in blue. It is evident that these velocity profiles are, in fact, parabolic with greatest magnitudes of velocity at the center. Using Matlab, the maximum and minumum velocities were found to be: 120/80 mmHg max = 6.6011 m/s min = 0.0 m/s 600/300 mmHg max = 33.0678 m/s min = 0.0 m/s These results are consistent with our expectations that higher pressures with all else constant (viscosity, crosssectional area) would result in higher velocities. This phenomenon can be better described with an evaluation of the Navier-Stokes equation (1.1) to see that pressure is directly proportional with fluid velocity.

After calculation of the velocity profile, the shear stresses were graphed, as shown below:

Figure 3 Shear stress profile: Shear stress () in Pa is color coded on bar to the right of each graph. The left graph depicts shear stress profile for 120/80 mmHg and right graph depicts shear stress profile for 600/300 mmHg.

The estimated max shear values from the graphs are: 120/80 mmHg 18 Pa 600/300 mmHg 94 Pa These results are also consistent with expectation. Shear stress is defined as the force parallel to the face of a material, as opposed to perpendicular in the case of normal force. It is evident then, that the increase in force or movement parallel to the walls of the blood vessel would result in an increase in shear stress experienced by the blood vessel. To compare the results of the simulation with theoretical calculation, consider: =

(1.2) (1.3) (1.4)

= 1

where represents the maximum shear experienced by the blood vessel and v represents the velocity at any point (r) from the center of the velocity profile in relation to vmax and R, the radius of whole vessel. Because the maximum shear stress occurs at the walls of the vessel, the location of this point in the velocity profile is R, the complete radius of the vessel, or the furthest possible location from the center of the velocity profile. Therefore, in the equation 1.4, R is substituted into r. When calculated, the following shear stress values were found: 120/80 mmHg = 19.25 Pa 600/300 mmHg = 96.45 Pa These values correlate closely with those estimated from the Matlab graphs.

Next, an obstruction of radius 500 was modeled on the side of the vessel and the velocity profiles and shear values were re-calculated. The graphs of the velocity profiles are shown below:

Figure 4 2D velocity profile of blood flow with obstruction: Velocity in m/s is color coded on bar to the right of each graph. The left graph depicts velocity profile for 120/80 mmHg and right graph depicts velocity profile for 600/300 mmHg.

The maximum and minimum velocity values were found from Matlab to be: 120/80 mmHg max = 5.6838 m/s min = 0.0 m/s 600/300 mmHg max = 28.3996 m/s min = 0.0 m/s When compared to the maximum velocities without obstruction, it was noticed that the maximum velocities with obstruction were slower. This can be explained by Poiseuilles Law (1.5): =

(1.5)

where R represents the resistance to flow. is the viscosity of fluid and r represents the radius of the vessel. Upon examination of this equation, it can be seen that the resistance to flow is inversely proportional to the radius of the vessel. Thus, a smaller functional radius of a vessel due to an obstruction would result in a larger resistance to flow when compared to a larger functional radius with no obstruction. This large resistance to flow would generate lower magnitudes of velocity in the velocity profile, as shown by the data collected from our simulations.

The shear stresses for the blood flow through a blood vessel with an obstruction were graphed on Matlab:

Figure 5 Shear stress profile with obstruction: Shear stress () in Pa is color coded on bar to the right of each graph. The left graph depicts shear stress profile for 120/80 mmHg and right graph depicts shear stress profile for 600/300 mmHg.

The estimated max shear values from the graphs are: 120/80 mmHg 94 Pa 600/300 mmHg 119 Pa When compared to the max shear values from the blood flow through a vessel without obstruction, the max shears associated with obstruction are much larger. This may be attributed to the localized turbulent flow that the obstruction creates in the form of eddies. Much like how stones in rivers create areas of swirling, this is most likely the case in blood flow as well, which would increase shear stress against the walls of the vessel. It is important to note, however, that eddies do not influence the overall velocity profile to make it turbulent they are merely localized areas. To show this, the Reynolds number was evaluated for the scenario of blood flow through a vessel with obstruction and 600/300 mmHg pressure.

(1.6)

Substituting 28.3996 m/s for v and all of the initial parameters (D = diameter of vessel, = density of blood, = viscosity of blood), Re is found to be 38.95. In evaluating Reynolds number, a value higher than 2300 indicates a transition in the overall fluid profile to turbulent flow. The Re for the simulation with obstruction even at the higher pressure is only 38.95, thus it can be safely assumed that the overall fluid flow is still laminar and that all of our assumptions (Navier-Stokes (1.1)) may be applied. One further explanation of the increase in shear stress for blood flow across an obstruction can be evaluated with relation to friction, or resistance to flow. As previously described with Poiseuilles Law (1.5), vessels with lower diameters create a larger resistance to flow, which can be considered analogous to friction. If a vessel has a larger friction coefficient, than it can be expected to experience greater shear stresses when movement is created across the surface.

Works Cited
1. DC. SinA, B., A.CC. TanA,B , YJ. KimC, N. KelsonD and G. ChadwickB (2006). FLOW ESTIMATION OF A DOUBLE OUTPUT CENTRIFUGAL ARTIFICIAL HEART PUMP AS A BIVENTRICULAR ASSIST DEVICE BY COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS. Australian Institute of Physics 17th National Congress 2006, Brisbane, RiverPhys. L'Heureux, Nicolas. "Technology Insight: the evolution of tissue-engineered vascular grafts-from research to clinical practice." Nature Clinical Practice. 4.7 (2007): 389-395.

2.