A computational analysis of pulsating flow in rigid and deformable tubes

A computational analysis was made to study pulsating flow in rigid and deformable, uniform and nonuniform tubes. Two dimensionless forms of the Navier-Stokes equations were used, and a forcing function was introduced in the equations as a dynamic input. Numerical results of pulsating flow in rigid and deformable, uniform and nonuniform vessels were compared. For pulsating flow in deformable tubes, effects of the distensibility of the vessel wall on the flow pattern, pressure field, variation of shear stress, boundary layer development, and energy dissipation were studied. With a same temporal Karman number, radial dilation and contraction of the wall motion were found to have significant effects on the dynamic characteristics of the nonlinear flow process. The influence of nonuniformity of a vessel is studied for rigid and deformation cases.