Finite Element Simulation and Analysis of Pulsatile Blood Flow Through Aorta with Varying LDL Cholesterol Concentration

Muscle surrounded and three-dimensional branched aorta has been simulated with an ambition to study various parameters regarding blood flow for different LDL cholesterol concentrations. In biomedical arena it becomes important to understand the characteristic of blood flow though cardiovascular system. Aiming to this importance variation of blood velocity, pressure on aortic walls and aortic deformation have been presented in this paper due to change of LDL concentration in blood. In this finite element modeling study, the branches aorta and muscle are considered as solid elastic structure and blood as a Newtonian fluid that has laminar flow profile through aorta. COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 provides necessary environment to simulate this fluid-solid interaction. Compiling simulation with pulsatile blood pressure as well as elastic aortic walls and other essential boundary conditions, the outcomes yield an intuition about hemodynamics especially inside aorta. Outcomes show some changes in flow velocity, aortic pressure, radial deformations and stiffness occur for significant changes of blood LDL cholesterol levels.