The Role of Cardiovascular Stent Geometry and Material Properties on the Mechanics of Stenting in the Coronary Arteries: A Finite Element Simulation

The Role of Cardiovascular Stent Geometry and Material Properties on the Mechanics of Stenting in the Coronary Arteries: A Finite Element Simulation

Coronary stents are small metallic tubes implanted in heart arteries to prevent the arteries from closing up. Their principal advantage is that they do not require open heart surgery, as they are implanted directly through the arteries. Because of this, the use of coronary stents in interventional procedures has rapidly increased. Nowadays, over 40 different types of stents are commercially available which have different designs and materials. Comparing the mechanical behavior of these types can help doctors to select the most appropriate stent model to use. In this paper, finite element method is used to investigate the effect of stent design and material properties on its behavior. Two commercially available stent designs (the Palmaz–Schatz and Multi–Link stents) and three different stent materials (stainless steel 304, stainless steel SUS316L & cobalt alloy MP35N) are modeled and their behavior during the deployment is compared. According to the findings, the Multi–Link stent is predicted to have better output in comparison with Palmaz–Schatz stent. Moreover, stainless steel 304 is more suitable material for manufacturing stents, in comparison with the other two materials. The obtained results show that the materials with low value of yield stress are more suitable for manufacturing stents.