Numerical Analysis of Blood Clot Mechanical Behavior in Relation to Blood Flow Inside the Popliteal Vein

Abstract

In this work, blood clot behavior under the influence of the mechanical effect of blood flow was analyzed. Attention is mainly paid to the deformation of the thrombus in the event of an alternating effect of blood flow in the blood vessel of the human leg. It is assumed that the higher stress accumulation is associated with a decrease in the width of the lumen of the blood vessel. The idea is to represent a critical case when embolus can form. The geometry of the thrombus is selected on the basis of existing blood patterns. Modeling is performed using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The results reflect the distribution of stress and blood velocity over time. The work selected a critical case, when the formation of an embolus is possible due to the deformation of the thrombus by the blood flow. Research is important for studying the behavior of thrombus formation at different periods of time, and also taking into account the specific geometry of thrombus deformation for the purpose of predicting embolisms. The results are observed due to increased deformations in the appropriate areas of the clot, whose tests show specific blood deformation from the alternating effects of blood on different sections of the vessels.