Boundary Value Problems
Volume 2009 (2009), Article ID 568657, 15 pages
doi:10.1155/2009/568657

Two-fluid mathematical models for blood flow in stenosed arteries: a comparative study

Abstract

The pulsatile flow of blood through stenosed arteries is analyzed by assuming the blood as a two-fluid model with the suspension of all the erythrocytes in the core region as a non-Newtonian fluid and the plasma in the peripheral layer as a Newtonian fluid. The non-Newtonian fluid in the core region of the artery is assumed as a (i) Herschel-Bulkley fluid and (ii) Casson fluid. Perturbation method is used to solve the resulting system of non-linear partial differential equations. Expressions for various flow quantities are obtained for the two-fluid Casson model. Expressions of the flow quantities obtained by Sankar and Lee (2006) for the two-fluid Herschel-Bulkley model are used to get the data for comparison. It is found that the plug flow velocity and velocity distribution of the two-fluid Casson model are considerably higher than those of the two-fluid Herschel-Bulkley model. It is also observed that the pressure drop, plug core radius, wall shear stress and the resistance to flow are significantly very low for the two-fluid Casson model than those of the two-fluid Herschel-Bulkley model. Hence, the two-fluid Casson model would be more useful than the two-fluid Herschel-Bulkley model to analyze the blood flow through stenosed arteries.