Numerical simulation of lipoprotein concentration polarization in bifurcation artery

Atherosclerosis is prone to form at some places such as bifurcation, bend and stenosis of arteries. In this study we built a Y-branch two-dimension vascular model by GAMBIT software , then carried out gridding partition, inputted Fluent software, and adopted two-phase flow mixture model to solve the equation. Then we simulated the concentration distribution of low density lipoprotein(LDL) of bifurcation vessel to understand the transfer mechanism of atherosclerotic lipids. The results indicated LDL concentration polarization was observed both in a lateral bifurcation model and a symmetrical bifurcation model of blood vessels obviously, and the positions of high lipid concentration were around the bifurcations. Lipids concentrations in local positions increased drastically with the augmentation of velocities of flows, but it did not change obviously with the augmentation of LDL concentration in blood flow, neither with the reverse of blood flow. The obvious LDL concentration polarization at the bifurcation vessels may greatly contribute to the formation and development of atherosclerotic lesions at local vessels.