Numerical investigations of the structural behavior of a balloon expandable stent design using finite element method

This paper discusses some issues regarding the structural behavior of a Balloon-Expandable (BE) stent made of stainless steel material (AISI316L). BE stent is a tubular, often mesh-like, structure which is expanded inside a diseased (stenosed) artery segment to restore blood flow and keep the vessel open following angioplasty. Most of BE stent designs have two fundamental constituents: expandable ring elements, and connecting elements bridges'' which connect adjacent rings together. The stent design is a major factor which determines its reliability during insertion into the blocked artery and throughout the long term in vivo service. The objective of this paper is to study the structural behavior of the stent in order to show the effect of the stent design, especially the geometry of the bridges'' in terms of flexibility, torsion and expansion. The numerical investigation is based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) using Abaqus (c) finite element code. It has been demonstrated by FEA that the geometry of the connecting elements bridges'' has a significant impact on the structural behavior of the stent. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.