PIV System for Hemodynamic Measurements in the Aortic Arch

The aorta is the main artery of the human body; it originates from the left chamber of the heart and carries blood to the brain, arms and lower abdomen and from there to smaller arteries and to the legs. In some cases the aorta may increase in size and could cause blood clots and even raptures, this phenomenon is called an aneurysm. There are a few main bypass procedures that are used to treat aortic arch aneurysm. Our goals are to analyze the flow and measure the properties of the flow of blood in the aortic arch in the state of an aneurysm and in those different bypass procedures. Our measurement method is the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), which is an optical method of flow visualization of fluids. In this method we are able to obtain instantaneous velocity measurements, shear stress and related flow parameters. Preliminary results will be shown in the poster.