[Introduction]This model studies a portion of the vascular system, in particular the upper part of the aorta (Figure 4-1). The aorta and its ramified blood vessels are embedded in biological tissue, specifically the cardiac muscle. The flowing blood applies pressure to the artery’s internal surfaces and its branches, thereby deforming the tissue. The analysis consists of two distinct but coupled procedures: first, a fluid-dynamics analysis including a calculation of the velocity field and pressure distribution in the blood (variable in time and in space); second, a mechanical analysis of the deformation of the tissue and artery. In this model, any change in the shape of the vessel walls does not influence the fluid domain, which implies that there is only a 1-way fluid-structural coupling. However, in COMSOL Multiphysics it is possible to simulate a 2-way coupling using the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian) method.
Figure 4-2 shows two views of the problem domain, one with and one without the cardiac muscle. The model’s mechanical analysis must consider the cardiac muscle because it presents a stiffness that resists artery deformation due to the applied pressure.