Fat deposition in the aorta is one of the biggest dangers to your heart health! When fatty substances build up inside your main blood vessel, they create a serious condition called atherosclerosis that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. First of all, the aorta is your body’s most important highway for blood, carrying oxygen-rich blood from your heart to every part of your body. Additionally, when fat deposits stick to the inner walls of this critical artery, they gradually make the passage narrower and restrict normal blood flow. Moreover, these buildups don’t just block the way – they also make the vessel walls stiff and less flexible, forcing your heart to work harder to push blood through. Furthermore, advanced CFD simulation helps doctors understand exactly how different sizes and shapes of fat deposits change the way blood moves through affected areas. The disturbed blood flow patterns created around these fatty areas include dangerous swirling motions and spots where blood moves very slowly. Most importantly, these changes in flow dynamics increase the risk of blood clots forming that can break loose and block smaller vessels in the brain, heart, or other organs. Regarding its importance, the current CFD study is conducted based on numerous reference papers to explore the effect of fat deposition in the Aorta.

• Reference [1]: Moretti, Simona, et al. “Comparative analysis of patient-specific aortic dissections through computational fluid dynamics suggests increased likelihood of degeneration in partially thrombosed false lumen.” Bioengineering3 (2023): 316.
• Reference [2]: Kanaris, A. G., A. D. Anastasiou, and S. V. Paras. “Modeling the effect of blood viscosity on hemodynamic factors in a small bifurcated artery.” Chemical Engineering Science71 (2012): 202-211.

Figure 1: Atherosclerosis – Fat deposition in veins

Simulation Process

The geometry model is created from MRI images, shown in Fig. 2. The images are discretized into 638974 cells using ANSYS Meshing, maintaining quality. The viscous blood passing through the veins keeping laminar regime. The main objective of current study is exploring the effect of fat deposition on aorta flow.

Figure 2: Geometry model of Aorta a) without fat deposition b) with fat deposition

Post-processing

The blood flow contour show us the amazing difference between a healthy aorta and one with fat deposits! When blood flows through a normal aorta, it moves smoothly like water in a garden hose. But when fatty deposits build up on the walls, everything changes! Our simulation successfully showed blood speeds increasing up to 300% in the narrowed sections compared to the healthy aorta. This happens because the same amount of blood must squeeze through a smaller space, just like when you put your thumb over a water hose! Also, notice how the blood flow creates tiny swirling patterns after passing through the narrow spots. Furthermore, these swirls can make more fat stick to the walls over time, making the problem even worse. The narrowing from atherosclerosis doesn’t just slow down blood – it makes your heart work much harder to push the same amount of blood through your body!

Figure 3: Velocity comparison between normal aorta (left) and aorta with fat deposition (right)

The pressure map reveals another big problem that happens when fat deposits build up in your aorta! In a healthy blood vessel, pressure changes very little as blood flows through. But with fatty deposits, the pressure drops sharply across the narrowed area. We measured pressure differences up to 5 times higher in the affected aorta model compared to the healthy one. Additionally, areas just before the narrowing experience much higher pressure, which can weaken the vessel wall over time. Most importantly, the wall shear stress (the pushing and pulling forces on the artery walls) increases dramatically in the narrowed sections. This extra stress is exactly what can cause the fat deposits to break open suddenly, creating blood clots that can cause heart attacks or strokes! This is why doctors worry so much about fat deposition in your aorta – it doesn’t just block blood flow but creates a ticking time bomb that could cause serious problems without warning.

Figure 4: Pressure distribution visualization comparing normal and fat-affected aorta models