Numerical investigation of blood flow in a stenotic artery. Target 1: geometry and rheology

Atherosclerosis is a vascular disease that thickens the internal walls of a blood vessel locally depositing a plaque. Plaques can be: eccentric (those here considered), if they develop punctually, or circumferential, if they develop along the whole perimeter. Stenoses do not have a typical shape or mutual location: this allowed the present paper to perform all those geometrical and rheological hypotheses allowing for the numerical investigation performed in the linked paper called “target 2”. Our hypotheses concerned: 1) a reference geometry with its possible evolutions; 2) the EAC (Equivalent Area Criterion) and EDC (Equivalent Dimensions Criterion), to make results comparable among the different systems considered; 3) a possible definition of the staggering among the stenoses; 4) a full rheological model. The main goal of this paper is to fully prepare the ground (35 cases study) to the future complete and novel numerical analysis (in “target 2”).