Author(s)

G. Pontrelli

Abstract

The unsteady flow of blood in a straight arterial segment, driven by an oscillatory pressure gradient, is studied. A viscoelastic shear-thinning model for blood is proposed. Numerical results are obtained by a spectral collocation method in space and the trapezoidal finite difference scheme in time. 1 Introduction The possibility to predict the flow of blood through natural and artificial vessels has stimulated much research activity in hemodynamics. Such studies are of particular importance because there is indirect evidence that the causes and developments of many cardiovascular diseases are, to a great extent, related to the characteristics of blood flow, such as the high values of the shear stress at the wall or its variations [l]-[3]. In this work the liquid blood is considered as a continuum medium. Such an

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