Does the blood flow (fluid mechanics point of view) has any effect on the failure of stent?

[SteveFinnan]

So far I have search, the reason for failure of stent does not come from blood flow in artery. The most common reason is the fatigue failure, due to the cyclic loadings of the of the pulsatile blood pressure (solid mechanics point of view).


I want to know if the from the fluid mechanics point of view, will the stent fail due to it. My final year project is to determine the load distribution for the stent, inside the artery. From there, I will need to do the failure analysis on it.

And during the viva, the panels are those in Fluid Departments, not Solid Mechanics lectures.

So, any input will be welcome.

 

[burningDiesel]

In general, no, blood fow does not really cause the stent to fail.
As you mention, fatigue failure is caused mainly by the blood pressure and the movement of the arterial wall.
Shear stresses by the bloodflow will only contribute few percents to the total load. Pressure changes over the length of the stent are very small because of the small dimensions of stents.
Depending on where the stent is located, body movements (e.g. knee) play a role too, or the movement of the heart for coronairy stents.

 

[SteveFinnan]

Thanks for your reply.

But how am I going to convince my supervisor that the flow does not influence the mechanical failure of stent?

He keeps on asking me to find something relating each other. DAMN!!!! I cannot find a damn article that can relate it.

He asking me to find something like Reynolds number, the wall shear stress, and then use the value of wall shear stress as the blood pressure. The f*ck he is talking about!!!