FLOW IN T-BIFURCATIONS - EFFECT OF THE SHARPNESS OF THE FLOW DIVIDER

The local geometry of a bifurcation has been hypothesized to be a pote ntial geometrical risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis, While flow division and branch area ratios clearly affect the flow fie ld, the importance of the flow divider shape is not as clear, A fast s pectral element computational fluid mechanics (CFD) solver was used to simulate flow through 90 degrees T-bifurcations with three different flow divider shapes, Other factors, such as flow partition, area ratio , and bifurcation angle, were kept constant, A Reynolds number range o f 15 to 350 was studied to bracket experimental results in the literat ure. The variation in the sharpness of the corners had a dramatic effe ct on both the flow field and wall shear stress distribution in the si de branch, but little effect on the flow in the main tube, The magnitu de of reverse velocities and wall shear stress in the side branch incr eased Linearly over a physiological range of Reynolds number and corne r shape, This paper verifies the accuracy and usefulness of spectral e lement CFD in studying three-dimensional hemodynamics.