Numerical Simulation of Magnetic Drug Targeting with Flow – Structural Interaction in an Arterial Branching Region of Interest

A. Morega, A. Dobre, and M. Morega
University Politehnica of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania
Published in 2010

We report a numerical study on the blood – magnetic carrier aggregate flow in an external magnetic field, for applications such as magnetic drug targeting. The arterial system morphology is complex and patient-related therefore more realistic numerical simulations request medical image-based reconstruction to generate computational domains. Simpleware package is used to generate the computational domain that comprises a segment of the cardiac arterial tree – vessels and embedding muscular mass – and a permanent magnet that produces the magnetic field. The numerical simulation, under pulsating flow conditions, was solved by COMSOL. The fluid (blood) is assumed Newtonian, its flow is incompressible, laminar. The artery wall and cardiac muscle are hyperelastic media. The magnetic field is produced by a permanent magnet, embedded in the muscular volume. Numerical simulation results unveil the complex field-flow-structural interactions that occur in this problem.

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