Numerical investigation of pulsatile blood flow in a bifurcation model with a non-planar branch: the effect of different bifurcation angles and non-planar branch

Introduction: Atherosclerosis is a focal disease that susceptibly forms near bifurcations, anastomotic joints, side branches, and curved vessels along the arterial tree. In this study, pulsatile blood flow in a bifurcation model with a non-planar branch is investigated.

Methods: Wall shear stress (WSS) distributions along generating lines on vessels for different bifurcation angles are calculated during the pulse cycle.

Results: The WSS at the outer side of the bifurcation plane vanishes especially for higher bifurcation angles but by increasing the bifurcation angle low WSS region squeezes. At the systolic phase there is a high possibility of formation of a separation region at the outer side of bifurcation plane for all the cases. WSS peaks exist on the inner side of bifurcation plane near the entry section of daughter vessels and these peaks drop as bifurcation angle is increased.

Conclusion: It was found that non-planarity of the daughter vessel lowers the minimum WSS at the outer side of the bifurcation and increases the maximum WSS at the inner side. So it seems that the formation of atherosclerotic plaques at bifurcation region in direction of non-planar daughter vessel is more risky.