Modelling peeling- and pressure-driven propagation of arterial dissection

An arterial dissection is a longitudinal tear in the vessel wall, which can create a false lumen for blood flow and may propagate quickly, leading to death. We employ a computational model for a dissection using the extended finite element method with a cohesive traction-separation law for the tear faces. The arterial wall is described by the anisotropic hyperelastic Holzapfel–Gasser–Ogden material model that accounts for collagen fibres and ground matrix, while the evolution of damage is governed by a linear cohesive traction-separation law. We simulate propagation in both peeling and pressure-loading tests. For peeling tests, we consider strips and discs cut from the arterial wall. Propagation is found to occur preferentially along the material axes with the greatest stiffness, which are determined by the fibre orientation. In the case of pressure-driven propagation, we examine a cylindrical model, with an initial tear in the shape of an arc. Long and shallow dissections lead to buckling of the inner wall between the true lumen and the dissection. The various buckling configurations closely match those seen in clinical CT scans. Our results also indicate that a deeper tear is more likely to propagate.