Numerical Simulation of Blood Flow in a Stented Aneurysm Using Lattice Boltzmann Method

An aneurysm is a local deformation of a blood vessel caused by high pressure and wall weakness. The rupture of aneurysms leads to a cerebral hemorrhage and severe complications in the patient. Hemorrhagic stroke is one of the common causes of death by cardiovascular diseases and affects 15% of stroke patients worldwide. Recently, stent placement has been considered a promising and minimally invasive technique to prevent the rupture of an aneurysm. Hemodynamic characteristics of the blood flow are affected by the aneurysm geometry and stent properties. In this study, the effect of the stent size and strut shape on the blood flow parameters are investigated numerically. The Lattice Boltzmann Method is used in this simulation since it is convenient for modeling complex fluid flow and transport phenomena based on kinetic theory and statistic physics. The results show that with reduced pore size, speed and momentum in the aneurysm sac decrease, and stent-struts with a rectangular cross-section perform the best. Additionally, the height of the stent is more effective in reducing the blood flow than the width of the stent.