Coupled modelling of blood flow and arterial wall interactions by the finite element method

A coupled treatment of blood/arterial wall interactions is presented here. The model solves three different types of equations: (1) the full time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations governing the flow of blood, (2) the linear-elastic small-displacement stress equations for the arterial wall, and (3) the mesh displacement equations. These equations are discretised using the Galerkin finite element method. The coupled model is able to predict the time-dependent displacement and stress fields within the solid wall, as well as the full flow field. To demonstrate the validity of the approach, a number of sample calculations have been performed showing good agreement with available analytical solutions. The model is then applied to physiologically realistic arterial flow situations