Blood flow dynamics and fluid-structure interaction in patient-specific bifurcating cerebral aneurysms

Abstract

Hemodynamics plays an important role in the progression and rupture of cerebral aneurysms. The current work describes the blood flow dynamics and fluid–structure interaction in seven patient-specific models of bifurcating cerebral aneurysms located in the anterior and posterior circulation regions of the circle of Willis. The models were obtained from 3D rotational angiography image data, and blood flow dynamics and fluid–structure interaction were studied under physiologically representative waveform of inflow. The arterial wall was assumed to be elastic, isotropic and homogeneous. The flow was assumed to be laminar, non-Newtonian and incompressible. In one case, the effects of different model suppositions and boundary conditions were reported in detail. The fully coupled fluid and structure models were solved with the finite elements package ADINA. The vortex structure, pressure, wall shear stress (WSS), effective stress and displacement of the aneurysm wall showed large variations, depending on the morphology of the artery, aneurysm size and position. The time-averaged WSS, effective stress and displacement at the aneurysm fundus vary between 0.17 and 4.86 Pa, 4.35 and 170.2 kPa and 0.16 and 0.74 mm, respectively, for the seven patient-specific models of bifurcating cerebral aneurysms. Copyright q 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.