Meshing strategy for bifurcation arteries in the context of blood flow simulation accuracy

Poznań University of Technology, Chair of Thermal Engineering, Piotrowo 3, 60-965 Poznań, Poland

^* Corresponding author: natalia.gr.lewandowska@doctorate.put.poznan.pl

Abstract

The study presents a mesh dependency study for a carotid artery bifurcation geometry of a real-life specimen. The results of time-averaged velocity profiles at artery control surfaces and wall shear stresses are compared between a set of structured and unstructured meshes, with varying non–dimensional boundary layer first element thickness (y+) parameter. A set of four meshes in total is considered: a full–hexagonal structured mesh, an unstructured tetrahedral mesh with prism inflation layer, both created for y+=1 and y+=30. Apart from numerical results, overall mesh creation work time, overall analysisstability are compared with the mesh quality results: cell non–orthogonality, cell skew and aspect ratio. Numerical results are validated against results of real–life CT examination performed in Poznań Medical University.