Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in the Crescent-Shaped Lumen Catheter

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical investigation of fluid flow, frequency response in the fully developed region, and convective heat transfer in the entrance region of the crescent-shaped lumen catheter. The catheter is commonly used in the biomedical field to clinically diagnose heart disease and also to treat vessel blockage in surgery. The catheter is subjected to a constant wall temperature. The solution to discretization of the momentum and energy equations is obtained by using the numerically generated boundary fitted coordinate system. According to this method, the complex domain in the physical plane is transformed into a regular square domain in the computational plane. The control volume-based finite difference method is then used to discretize the transformed governing equations. Results for the thermal entry region flow, frequency response, and heat transfer are presented in graphical form. The representative curves illustrating variations of the flow rate, frequency response, damping coefficient, bulk temperature, and the Nusselt numbers with pertinent parameters in the entire thermal entry region are plotted. The optimized catheter design for diagnostic use in the medical industry is also presented graphically.