Comparison of natural and synthetic carotid arteries in the normal and occluded cases considering the effect of blood on elastic wall of artery

Artificial vein graft is one of the most commonly used surgeries in the human body, in which the stenosis is replaced with an artificial prosthesis. The mechanical behavior of this prosthesis must be very close to the normal behavior of the vein in order to have an appropriate operation. The carotid artery is one of the major arteries in the blood supply to the human brain. In this paper, the effect of blood fluid on natural and prosthetic vessel walls in normal and occluded cases has been analyzed. Blood flow as a non-Newtonian fluid in the carotid artery has been simulated using ANSYS CFX software. According to the obtained results, the stenosis increases the velocity, shear stress, von Mises stress, deformation as well as local pressure reduction in the occlusion zone. Maximum value of deformation and von Mises stress occurs near bifurcation in the common carotid artery. Then Dacron and polyurethane polymers have been used as replacements for natural carotid artery and von Mises stress and deformation values have been calculated for these polymers in the normal and occluded cases. According to the obtained results, usage of Dacron polymer as a replacement for the natural carotid artery is more appropriate than polyurethane.