Computational analysis of the impact of aortic bifurcation geometry to AAA haemodynamics

Abstract

Abstract Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a widespread disease of cardiovascular system. Predicting a moment of its rupture is an important task for modern vascular surgery. At the same time, little attention is paid to the comorbidities, which are often the causes of severe postoperative complications or even death. This work is devoted to a numerical study of the haemodynamics of the model geometry for possible localizations of abdominal aortic aneurysm: on the aortic trunk or on its bifurcation. Both rigid and FSI numerical simulations are considered and compared with the model aortic configuration without aneurysm. It is shown that in the case of localization of the aneurysm on the bifurcation, the pressure in aorta increases upstream. Moreover, only in the case of a special geometry,when the radii of the iliac arteries are equal (r 1 = r 2), and the angle between them is 60 degrees, there is a linear relationship between the pressure in the aorta above the aneurysm and the size of the aneurysm itself: the slope of the straight line is in the interval a ∈ (0.003; 0.857), and the coefficient of determination is R 2 ⩾ 0.75. The area bounded by the curve of the ‘pressure–velocity’ diagram for the values of velocity and pressure upstream in the presence of an aneurysm decreases compared to a healthy case (a vessel without an aneurysm). The simulation results in the rigid and FSI formulations agree qualitatively with each other. The obtained results provide a better understanding of the relationship between the geometrical parameters of the aneurysm and the changing of haemodynamics in the aortic bifurcation and its effect on the cardiovascular system upstream of the aneurysm.