Analysis of flow patterns in a patient-specific thoracic aortic aneurysm model

In this study, a newly developed two-equation transitional model was employed for the prediction of blood flow patterns in a thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA) where the growth and progression are closely linked to low and oscillating wall shear stresses. Laminar-turbulent transition in the dilated vessel can alter the flow structure, shear stress and pressure distribution within the aneurysm. A patient-specific TAA model was reconstructed from magnetic-resonance (MR) images and measured velocity waveform was used as the inflow condition. Laminar flow and a correlation-based transitional version of Menter's hybrid k - epsilon/k - omega Shear Stress Transport (SST Tran) model were implemented in pulsatile simulations from which WSS distribution was obtained throughout a cardiac cycle and velocity profiles were compared with MR measurements. The correlation-based transitional model was found to produce results in closer agreement with the MR data than the laminar flow simulation. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.