The Impact of Competitive Flow in Coronary Arteries

133703-9292-IJMME-IJENS © June 2013 IJENS I J E N S  Abstract— The purposes of this study are to investigate the effects of the competitive flow on hemodynamic characteristics such as flow patterns and WSS and to examine the Non-Newtonian effects considering the idealized end-to-side anastomsis models. The physiological flow has been applied to examine the competitive flows issued stenosed artery and the graft. The parameters examined in this study are both the direction of graft such as either antegrade or retrograde graft flow, and the angle of the graft relative to native coronary artery. Velocity profiles and wall shear stress were calculated in the coronary artery bypass graft models using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). In the bifurcation region, an asymmetric velocity profile is formed due to the jet flow severely affecting downstream flow field with the dependence of graft angles. There is a large difference in the mean flow volume between antegrade and retrograde grafts. As the constriction of the cross-sectional area in the blood vessel increases, Non-Newtonian effect of blood can be no longer neglected. In the study the competitive flow can be modeled after the coronary artery bypass graft and our results provide useful hemodynamics to better understand the mechanism of graft failure.