Computational modelling of thrombotic processes and complex haemodynamics in cerebral aneurysms

• Main Author: Ngoepe, Malebogo N.
• Published: University of Oxford 2013
• Subjects: 616.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.639454

A clot in a cerebral aneurysm can either accelerate the road to rupture, through inflammatory processes and furthering vascular wall degradation, or stabilise the situation by occluding the aneurysm, and thus prevent rupture. A three-dimensional computational model of clotting in patient-derived cerebral aneurysm geometries is presented. The model accounts for the biochemical reactions that make up the clotting process, for realistic three-dimensional haemodynamics in image-derived vasculature representations and for the growing clot's interaction with and impact on the flow field. The flow is accounted for by the Navier Stokes equations and the transport equation describes the changes in biochemical species concentrations. Level Set methods are used to track the surface of the growing clot in the three-dimensional geometries studied. The influence of the thrombosed region on the haemodynamics is accounted for by modifying the local porosity and permeability, to reflect the fibrous and permeable nature of the clot. The model is first developed, examined and parameterised for a physiological model of clotting in two dimensions and is then extended and demonstrated for the pathological case in three dimensions