Flow recirculation and turbulence downstream of an axisymmetrical arterial stenosis: a numerical approach

To investigate the possible role of hemodynamic factors in cardiovascular disorders, the characteristics of the flow in regions of disturbed flow formed downstream of arterial stenoses mere studied numerically using turbulence modeling. The calculations were carried out in constrictions with different stenosis rate at Reynolds numbers ranging from 500 - 2000 under steady-state flow conditions. k-w turbulence modeling was adopted in the numerical simulation. The numerical results obtained have a fairly good agreement with experimental results, indicating that under certain flow conditions thigh Reynolds number combined with high degree of stenosis), laminar flow assumption is not realistic in the numerical simulation of arterial stenosis.