PIV measurements of proximal models with different anastomotic angles

The anastomosis glass models are designed and fabricated to investigate the effect of the anastomotic angles (30 degrees to 90 degrees for both forwar d and backward flow) on the intimal hyperplasia formation. A test rig is de signed and built to perform Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurement on the anastomosis models with three Reynolds numbers of 100, 169 and 250. Th e initial results indicated that there are two low velocity regions, one of them is located at the outer wall of the graft near the joint and the othe r is located at one diameter down from the joint along the inner wall of th e graft. It is found that these low velocity regions are dependent on the R eynolds number and anastomotic angles. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.