This research provides useful insights for better diagnosis and understanding the vein blockage induced by a deep venous thrombosis and the occurrence of reverse flow in human veins, allowing a proper detection of serious diseases related to deep venous insufficiency. An arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian formulation is used in a coupled model (i.e. fluid and structure equations solved together), considering two domains, specifically the blood flow and the flexible structures (i.e. vein and valves). Computational fluid dynamics mathematical model based on finite element method, with special elements and boundary characterization, is addressed to find the best solution. This research presents a novel model to study the interaction between non-Newtonian laminar fluid flows, the blood, within nonlinear structures, the vein walls. Simulation results are validated using in vivo echo-Doppler measurements.
Keywords: Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE); Computational fluid dynamics (CFD); Deep venous thrombosis (DVT); Hemodynamics; Non-Newtonian fluid.