Secondary Currents in Arterial Flows

Secondary Currents in Arterial Flows

Coronary artery disease is a leading cause of mortality worldwide and coronary stenting represents a widely adopted treatment for restoring blood flow in stenotic arteries. Despite significant advances in stent materials and designs, complications such as restenosis and stent thrombosis remain major concerns, highlighting the importance of understanding stent-induced hemodynamic alterations.

Previous studies have predominantly focused on near-wall hemodynamic parameters, including wall shear stress and shear rate, due to their recognized role in vascular remodeling and disease progression. However, less attention has been devoted to large-scale flow structures, such as secondary currents, which may arise in stented arteries as a result of surface roughness and geometric heterogeneities introduced by the device.

In particular, roughness-induced secondary currents of the second kind, associated with turbulence anisotropy, remain poorly characterized in arterial flows. The conditions under which these currents develop, their interaction with curvature-induced secondary flows, and their influence on arterial hemodynamics have not yet been systematically investigated. This represents a relevant gap in the current understanding of flow dynamics in stented arteries and their potential role in stent-related complications.

Evaluate and quantify the impact of roughness-induced secondary currents on arterial hemodynamics through the development and testing of stent-inspired models with different geometric features, using stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry complemented (if time permits) by computational fluid dynamics analyses.

In vitro experiments will be carried out using stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry on a dedicated facility developed via stereolithographic 3D printing. Measurements will be performed in rigid, transparent conduits under steady, oscillatory, and pulsatile flow conditions representative of coronary arteries. If time permits, computational fluid dynamics simulations will be used to complement and validate the experimental results.