Blood flow in a polyester textile vascular prosthesis: Experimental and numerical study

Textile cardiovascular prostheses are woven or knitted structures made of s ynthetic filaments. They present particular mechanical properties linked to the nature of yarn interlacing and the wavy form of their walls. Steady an d pulsatile blood flows are studied in such a prosthesis. The results show that a prosthesis cannot be considered as a flat-walled graft. These result s also demonstrate that the flow velocity near a prosthetic surface is stro ngly influenced by the morphology of the crimping. A local flow analysis is imperative to understanding pathologies implying hemodynamic factors and t o optimizing prosthesis design.