An in vitro investigation of the influence of stenosis severity on the flow in the ascending aorta.

Cardiovascular diseases can lead to abnormal blood flows, some of which are linked to hemolysis and thrombus formation. Abnormal turbulent flows of blood in the vessels with stenosis create strong shear stresses on blood elements and may cause blood cell destruction or platelet activation. We implemented a Lagrangian (following the fluid elements) measurement technique of three dimensional particle tracking velocimetry that provides insight on the evolution of viscous and turbulent stresses along blood element trajectories.

Experimental investigation of the influence of the aortic stiffness on hemodynamics in the ascending aorta.

A three-dimensional (3-D) pulsatile aortic flow in a human ascending aorta is studied to investigate the effect of the aortic stiffness on the flow field and turbulent fluctuating velocities in the ascending aorta. A nonintrusive optical measurement technique, 3-D particle tracking velocimetry (3D-PTV), has been applied to anatomically accurate phantoms under clinically realistic conditions. A compliant silicon phantom was used to mimic the healthy aorta, and a rigid model was used to imitate the pathological case that appears in aortas for example as a result of aging.

Stretching and tilting of material lines in turbulence: the effect of strain and vorticity.

The Lagrangian evolution of infinitesimal material lines is investigated experimentally through three dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (3D-PTV) in quasihomogeneous turbulence with the Taylor microscale Reynolds number Re(lambda)=50. Through 3D-PTV we access the full tensor of velocity derivatives du(i)/dx(j) along particle trajectories, which is necessary to monitor the Lagrangian evolution of infinitesimal material lines l. By integrating the effect on l of (i) the tensor du(i)/dx(j), (ii) its symmetric part s(ij), (iii) its antisymmetric part r(ij), along particle trajectories, we study the evolution of three sets of material lines driven by a genuine turbulent flow, by "strain only," or by "vorticity only," respectively.