NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE BEHAVIOR OF NON NEWTONIAN FLUIDS IN COMPLEX PROBLEMS USING OPENFOAM

• Grant number: 23/07771-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2023
• Status: Discontinued
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Biomedical Engineering - Medical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Akira Kurokawa
• Grantee: Amanda Sayuri Oizuni
• Host Institution: Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/22964-6 - A CFD analysis of blood flow in abdominal aortic aneurysms and the influence of non-Newtonian behaviour and boundary conditions on hemodynamics parameters, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

Between many problems, the flow of non-newtonian fluids has been gaining attention of a great number of researchers, due to its complex rheology and non-linear nature. Computational numerical approaches involving simulating the behavior of these fluids is an extremely important topic for many economic activities. The non-newtonian fluids are present in various fields, from the food industries (mayonnaise, ketchup, fruit pulps, and others) to hemodynamics, as in blood flow inside arteries, subject of study in this project. Despite the rapid advances in computational technology and medicine in recent years, the study of blood's rheological properties inside the human body remains very limited. The main reason is the difficulties in conducting experiments to obtain data, which are in most cases extremely invasive and financially expensive. Therefore, it is noticeable the importance of promoting a numerical tool that supports the investigation of non newtonian fluid flow. Studies in hemodynamics that use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been gaining space in patient-specific studies, as a way to support decision making processes, and in testing devices and medical equipment or in complex surgical procedures. This research project is dedicated to the numerical solution of non newtonian fluid flows using OpenFOAM's open source environment. Focused attention will be given to the analysis of different rheological models to evaluate the behavior of the blood as a non newtonian fluid inside vessels.