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Lecture

Womersley's Theory: Pulsatile Flow

Description

This lecture covers Womersley's theory for pulsatile flow, focusing on the use of harmonics to describe arterial pulses, the solution for pressure gradients, the definition of the Womersley parameter, and the relationship between flow and pressure gradient. It also discusses the physical meaning of the Womersley parameter in the context of Navier-Stokes equations and the viscous layer thickness. The presentation concludes with insights into pulsatile flow profiles and measurements.

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Instructor

Nikolaos Stergiopoulos

Education MTE, Managing the Technology Enterprise Program (2000), IMD, Lausanne Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering & Engineering Mechanics (1990) Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. MS in Biomedical Engineering (1987) Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa. Diploma in Mechanical Engineering (1985) National Technical University of Athens. Professional Activities 2002 - present: Professor and director of LHTC 2010 - present: Founder and director of Rheon Medical SA, Préverenges, Switzerland 2008 - present: Founder and director of Antlia S.A., PSE-C, EPFL campus, Switzerland 1998 - 2007: Founder and Scientific Director of EndoArt S.A., Lausanne, Switzerland 1996 - 2002: Assistant professor at the Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, Switzerland. 1991 - 1996: Research Associate at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - Lausanne 1990 - 1991: Lecturer, Iowa State University

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Physics

Mechanics: Fluid mechanics

Related concepts (32)

Boundary layer

In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces a no-slip boundary condition (zero velocity at the wall). The flow velocity then monotonically increases above the surface until it returns to the bulk flow velocity. The thin layer consisting of fluid whose velocity has not yet returned to the bulk flow velocity is called the velocity boundary layer.

Boundary layer thickness

This page describes some of the parameters used to characterize the thickness and shape of boundary layers formed by fluid flowing along a solid surface. The defining characteristic of boundary layer flow is that at the solid walls, the fluid's velocity is reduced to zero. The boundary layer refers to the thin transition layer between the wall and the bulk fluid flow. The boundary layer concept was originally developed by Ludwig Prandtl and is broadly classified into two types, bounded and unbounded.

Fluid dynamics

In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids—liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including aerodynamics (the study of air and other gases in motion) and hydrodynamics (the study of liquids in motion). Fluid dynamics has a wide range of applications, including calculating forces and moments on aircraft, determining the mass flow rate of petroleum through pipelines, predicting weather patterns, understanding nebulae in interstellar space and modelling fission weapon detonation.

Viscosity

The viscosity of a fluid is a measure of its resistance to deformation at a given rate. For liquids, it corresponds to the informal concept of "thickness": for example, syrup has a higher viscosity than water. Viscosity is defined scientifically as a force multiplied by a time divided by an area. Thus its SI units are newton-seconds per square metre, or pascal-seconds. Viscosity quantifies the internal frictional force between adjacent layers of fluid that are in relative motion.

Navier–Stokes equations

The Navier–Stokes equations (nævˈjeː_stəʊks ) are partial differential equations which describe the motion of viscous fluid substances, named after French engineer and physicist Claude-Louis Navier and Irish physicist and mathematician George Gabriel Stokes. They were developed over several decades of progressively building the theories, from 1822 (Navier) to 1842-1850 (Stokes). The Navier–Stokes equations mathematically express momentum balance and conservation of mass for Newtonian fluids.

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