Non-Newtonian Hemodynamics and Shear Stress Distribution in Three Dimensional Model of Healthy and Stented Coronary Artery Bifurcation

Stent implantation changes the arterial blood flow patterns and consequently changes the magnitude and distribution of Wall Shear Stress (WSS). Knowledge of local blood flow hemodynamics and shear forces are important for understanding the performance of stents. In certain regimes within the stented region (low shear rate regimes) blood should be treated as a non-Newtonian fluid. In this paper, a threedimensional model of the coronary artery bifurcation is developed and blood flow hemodynamics and WSS distribution in both healthy and stented coronary artery bifurcation are analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics. Our simulation shows that the presence of stent within the bifurcation induces local disturbance in the flow field and consequently produces regions of low and non-uniform shear stress in the main and daughter vessel.