Abstract
Flow velocity field, vorticity and circulation and wall shear stresses were simulated by FSI approach under conditions of pulsatile flow in a scale model of the rabbit elastin-induced aneurysm. The flow pattern inside the aneurysm sac confirmed the in vitro experimental findings that in diastole time period the flow inside the aneurysm sac is a stable circular clock-wise flow, while in systole time period higher velocity enters into the aneurysm sac and during systole and diastole time period an anti-clock circular flow pattern emerged near the distal neck; in the 3-D aneurysm sac, the kinetic energy per point is about 0.0002 (m2/s2); while in the symmetrical plane of the aneurysm sac, the kinetic energy per point is about 0.00024 (m2/s2). In one cycle, the shape of the intraaneurysmal energy profile is in agreement with the experimental data; The shear stress near the proximal neck experienced higher shear stress (peak value 0.35 Pa) than the distal neck (peak value 0.2 Pa), while in the aneurysm dome, the shear stress is always the lowest (0.0065 Pa). The ratio of shear stresses in the proximal neck vs. distal neck is around 1.75, similar to the experimental findings that the wall shear rate ratio of proximal neck vs. distal neck is 1.5 to 2.