University of Houston
Department of Computer Science

In partial fullfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Master of Science


Luyang Chen
will defend his thesis

Visualization of Blood Flow in Arteries

Abstract

Blood flow in arteries is dominated by unsteady flow phenomena. The curvatures and bifurcations of arteries relevant to this flow phenomena are serverely affected by atherosclerosis. Numerous investigations point out that atherosclerotic disease tends to be related to a narrowing of the artery lumen--a stenosis. The stenosis can cause turbulence and, in turn, viscous head losses, flow choking, thrombosis. The study of blood flow in arteries is motivated by the importance of flow dynamics factors in the development and progression of arterial diseases, the influence of the vessel wall distensibility of pulsatile flows at the edge of turbulence, the wall displacement in the bifurcation region, the dynamics of flow separation and recirculation and the wall shear stress distribution. In this thesis, we describe the development of visualization of 2D and 3D blood flow in complex geometric domains (arterial bifurcations), emphasizing datasets analysis, data structure design and implementation. This thesis also includes details of certain common visualization techniques


Date: Monday, November 8, 1999
Time: 2:30 PM
Place: Room 295 at VETL Lab


Faculty, students, and the general public are invited
Thesis Advisor: Dr. Bowen R. Loftin