Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Flow Characterization Under Idealized Stenosis Geometry And Performance Assessment Of The Hemodynamic Flow Facility, Marin Vratonjic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It is well known that regions inside the human arterial network susceptible to atherosclerosis experience a complex flow environment. Endothelial Cells (ECs) lining the inner wall of arteries are sensors to spatially and temporally varying shear stress (i.e. wall shear stress gradients). This complex force-loading can disrupt local cell-to-cell attachment regions triggering a cascade of biological events leading to the formation of atherosclerotic lesions. Consequently, researchers predominantly use a Parallel Plate Flow Chamber (PPFC) to study the hemodynamic-cell cycle relationship due to its simplicity and ability to achieve a two-dimensional fully-developed steady laminar flow across the cell monolayer. Researchers also …