Influence of Blood Rheology and Vessel Wall Motion on Arterial Fluid Mechanics

Most model studies of arterial fluid mechanics have assumed that blood is a Newtonian fluid and that vessel wall motion driven by the pressure pulse has a small influence on the local velocity and pressure distributions. This paper provides a brief historical review of arterial flow modeling which emphasizes recent developments in non-Newtonian blood analog fluids and studies of the influence of vessel wall motion on local flow fields. It is pointed out that vessel wall motion can have a dominant effect on mean pressure gradient and a significant effect on mean wall shear stress in the aorta.