Open Access

ABSTRACT

Biomechanics of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms: Flow-Induced Wall Stress Distribution

by Christine M. Scotti¹, Sergio L. Cornejo², Ender A. Finol³

1 Biomedical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Santiago, Chile
3 Institute for Complex Engineered Systems and Biomedical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences 2007, 1(1), 41-48. https://doi.org/10.3970/icces.2007.001.041

Abstract

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture is believed to represent the culmination of a complex vascular mechanism partially driven by the forces exerted on the arterial wall. In the present investigation, we present fully coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and finite element analysis (FEA) computations of a patient-specific AAA model. This work advances previous FSI AAA modeling by including localized intraluminal thrombus and the comparison of FSI- and FEA-predicted wall stress distributions. The FSI transient fluid and wall dynamics resulted in a maximum wall stress 21% higher than that obtained with FEA, demonstrating the importance of modeling blood flow for the assessment of AAA wall mechanics.

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