2011 Sixth International Conference on Bio-Inspired Computing: Theories and Applications
Mathematical Modeling of a Complex System for MHD Flow in Hemodynamics
D. S. Sankar
Nurul Aini Jaafar
School of
School of
Mathematical
Mathematical
Sciences, Universiti
Sciences,
Sains Malaysia, 11800
Universiti Sains
Penang, Malaysia
Malaysia, 11800
sankar_ds@usm.my
Penang, Malaysia
n_girl88@yahoo.com
Abstract— Many physiological system in humans and
animals are complex systems. Hemodynamic is a branch of
physiology and is a complex system which deals with the
study of blood flow in arteries. We study the complex
physical system of blood flow in a narrow artery with
asymmetric stenosis in the presence of external magnetic
field, treating blood as Herschel-Bulkey fluid model. Finite
difference scheme is applied to solve the resulting system of
nonlinear partial differential equations with appropriate
initial and boundary conditions. The finite difference
schemes for the velocity distribution, skin friction, flow rate
and longitudinal impedance to flow are obtained. It is found
that the velocity decreases with the increase of the magnetic
field and pressure gradient reverse behavior is noticed when
the yield stress and depth of the stenosis increase. It is also
observed that the flow rate decreases with the increase of the
stenosis shape parameter, power law index and yield stress.
Also, it is noted that the presence of external magnetic field
influences the mean velocity by increasing its magnitude
significantly in arteries of different radii.
Keywords: Complex system; Mathematical modeling;
Herschel-Bulkley fluid; Pulsatile blood flow; Asymmetric
stenosis; Magnetic field
I. INTRODUCTION
Complex Systems is an upcoming research field which
covers all branches of science, engineering, medicine etc.,
and it establishes the relationships between the subsystems
which provide the collective behaviors of a system and
how the system interacts and forms relationships with the
environment [1]. Many physical systems are inherently
complex systems in terms of their definition and their
engineering practice includes elements of complex systems
research [2]. Numerical methods have the capability to
solve the non-linear system problem with good accuracy
though for small perturbations, most non-linear systems
are approximated as linear systems to yield an asymptotic
solution [3]. Hemodynamics is a complex system which
deals with the study of blood flow in the circulatory
system [4].
The cardiovascular system primarily takes in nutrients
and oxygen to the body and leaves out carbon-dioxide and
waste products from the body. The heart pumps blood
through a sophisticated network of branching tubes [5].
The mathematical modeling of blood flow through arteries
978-0-7695-4514-1/11 $26.00 © 2011 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/BIC-TA.2011.47
Ahmad Izani
Atulya Nagar
Mohamed Ismail
Centre for Applicable
School of Mathematics and
Mathematical System Science
Sciences, Universiti Department of
Sains Malaysia, 11800 Computer Science,
Penang, Malaysia Liverpool Hope
izani@cs.usm.my University, Liverpool,
L16 9JD, UK
nagara@hope.ac.uk
plays an important role not only in the fundamental
understanding of the fluid mechanics of blood flow, but
also in the diagnosis and treatment of many
cardiovascular diseases.
Among the various arterial diseases, the development
of arteriosclerosis in blood vessels is quite common which
may be attributed to the accumulation of lipids in the
arterial wall [6]. When a stenosis is formed in an artery,
one of the most serious consequences is the increased
resistance and the subsequent reduction in the blood flow
to the particular vascular bed supplied by the artery [7].
Hence, the presence of a stenosis can lead to the serious
circulatory disorder and thus, the mathematical modeling
of blood flow through a stenosed tube is important.
The magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow of blood in
arteries has important clinical applications such as
magnetic drug targeting for transporting drugs to the
whole body and in the design of magnetic devices for cell
separation [8]. Rathod et al. [9] mentioned that the
presence of external magnetic field greatly affects the
biological systems. Mekheimer and Kot [10] investigated
the influence of magnetic field and Hall current on blood
flow in a stenosed artery. Bhargava et al. [11] reported
that magnetic field can be used as a control mechanism
for blood flow in medical applications. Hence, it is
important to study the blood flow in arteries in the
presence of magnetic field.
Blood behaves like a Newtonian fluid when it flows
through larger arteries at high shear rates, whereas, it
shows remarkable non-Newtonian character when it
flows in narrow arteries at low shear rates [12]. Since, the
pulsatile type of flow in blood transport in narrow arteries
is quite common and well accepted; several studies
analyzed the pulsatile flow of blood in the presence of
magnetic field, treating blood as a non-Newtonian fluid
[13, 14]. The pulsatile flow of Herschel-Bulkley (H–B)
fluid for blood flow in stenosed arteries in the presence of
magnetic field was not investigated so far using
computational methods. Hence, the present study aims to
investigate the effect of magnetic field on blood flow
through asymmetric stenosed artery.
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 II. MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION ⎧⎛ A0 +A1 ⎞ ⎪⎧ I0 ( Hr) ⎪⎫
⎪⎜ 2 ⎟ ⎨1- ⎬ in the presence of magnetic field (5)
⎪⎝ H ⎠ ⎪⎩ I0 ( H) ⎪⎭
Consider unsteady (pulsatile), laminar, an axially u( r,z,0) = ⎨
⎪⎛ A0 +A1 ⎞
symmetric and fully developed flow of a non-Newtonian ⎪⎜ 4 ⎟ (1−r )
2
in the absence of magnetic field
incompressible viscous electrically conducting fluid ⎩⎝ ⎠
(blood) in the axial direction ( z ) through a circular artery ∂u
with an asymmetric mild stenosis in the presence of
( 0, z, t ) = 0 (6)
∂r
uniform transverse magnetic field. The non-Newtonian u ( 0, z, t ) = 0 at r = R (7)
behavior of the flowing blood is characterized by
Herschel-Bulkley (H-B) fluid model. The artery wall is
assumed as rigid and the artery is assumed to be too long Let us define the coordinate transformation as
so that the entrance and end effects can be neglected in the ξ = r R ( )
z, t . Applying the radial coordinate
arterial segment under study. Cylindrical polar coordinate transformation into the Eqs. (1) and (5) – (7), one can
( )
system r ,ψ , z is used to analyze the blood flow, where obtain
r and z are the radial and axial directions respectively
and ψ is the azimuthal angle. The geometry of the ⎡ 1 1
∂u 1 ⎢ ∂p
θ 1 1−
⎛ 1 ⎞ n ⎛ ∂u ⎞ n
arterial segment is shown in Fig.1. = − +⎢ + ⎜− ⎟
R e ⎢ ∂z 2 ξ R 1⎜ ⎟ ⎝ ∂ξ ⎠
∂t
⎢ 1+ ⎝ 2 ⎠
⎣ ξR n

1− 1
1 −1
2 ⎤
1 ⎛ 1 ⎞ n ⎛ ∂u ⎞ n ⎛ ∂ u ⎞ 2 ⎥ (8)
+ ⎜ ⎟ ⎜ − ∂ξ ⎟ ⎜⎜ − 2 ⎟⎟ + H u ⎥
1+ 1 ⎝ 2 ⎠ ⎝ ⎠ ⎝ ∂ξ ⎠
nR n ⎥ ⎦

Using the radial coordinate transformation, boundary and

initial conditions become

Fig. 1. The geometry of asymmetrically stenosed artery. ⎧⎛ A0 + A1 ⎞⎪⎧ I0 ( Mξ R) ⎪⎫

⎪⎜ ⎟⎨1− I M ⎬ in the presenceof magneticfield (9)
0( ) ⎭
2
⎪⎝ M ⎠⎪⎩ ⎪
The simplified form of the equation of motion, pressure u(ξ,z,0) = ⎨
gradient and arterial geometry are given below.
⎩⎝
⎛
⎪ 0 1
A + A ⎞
⎪ ⎜ 4 ⎟ 1−( Rξ)
⎠
(
2
)
in theabsence of magneticfield
⎡ ⎧⎛ ⎞⎫ ⎤
{ }
1
1 ⎢ ∂p 1 ∂ ⎪ ⎪ ∂u (10)
∂u ∂u
⎟⎬ + H u⎥
n
⎨r ⎜θ + (0 , z , t ) =
=− + −
2
(1) 0
∂ξ
∂t Re ⎢ ∂z r ∂r ⎜ ∂r ⎟⎪ ⎥
⎣ ⎪⎩ ⎝ ⎠⎭ ⎦ u (1, z, t ) = 0 (11)

∂p
− = A0 + A1 cos ω t  (2) From the constitutive equation of the Herschel-Bulkley
∂z fluid, we have
[ ]
⎧1 − A Lm0 −1 ( z − d ) − ( z − d )m a(t ) if d ≤ z ≤ d + L0
R( z , t ) = ⎨ 1
a(t )
1
1−
⎩ otherwise θ
⎛ 1 ⎞ n 1 ⎛ ∂u ⎞ n (12)
τ = + ⎜ ⎟ 1 n ⎜ − ∂ξ ⎟
(3) 2 ⎝ 2 ⎠ R ⎝ ⎠
a ( t ) = 1 − k cos (ωt − φ )  (4)
Finite difference method is applied to solve the
where u is the velocity in the axial direction, p is the
nonlinear partial differential Eq. (8) with the initial and
pressure, H is the Hartmann number, Re is the Reynolds
boundary conditions (8) – (11). Central difference formula
number, θ is the yield stress, R is the radius of the artery, k
is used for the spatial derivatives and forward difference
is the amplitude parameter associated with the artery
formula is applied to time derivative and these are listed
radius, ω is the frequency parameter, φ is the phase angle, below.
t is the time variable, A = (δ R0 L0 ) m (m m −1) , δ is the
∂u ( u )i, j +1 − ( u )i, j −1
k k
maximum depth of the stenosis, R0 is the radius of the
= ( u fx )
k
normal artery, L0 is the length of the stenosis, d is the = (13)
location of the stenosis, m is the stenosis shape parameter. ∂ξ 2Δξ i ,j

The non-dimensional form of the appropriate initial and

∂ 2 u ( u )i , j +1 − 2 ( u )i , j + ( u )i , j −1
k k k

= ( us x )
k
boundary conditions are [14] =
∂ξ ( Δx )
2 2 i ,j
(14)

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 III. NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF RESULTS AND
∂ u ( u )i , j − ( u )i , j
k +1 k

= (15) DISCUSSION
∂t Δt
The objective of this section is to bring out the effects
where, ξ j = ( j − 1) Δξ , j = 1, 2,.....N + 1 such that of the magnetic field, power law index, phase angle,
pressure gradient, yield stress, stenosis shape parameter
ξ N +1 = 1; zi = ( i − 1) Δz, i = 1, 2, .... M + 1; and maximum depth of the stenosis on the velocity, flow
tk = ( k − 1) Δt , k = 1, 2,.... for the entire arterial rate, skin friction in blood flow through narrow artery
when blood is modeled as H-B fluid model. For the
segment under consideration with Δ ξ and Δ z being the numerical simulation of the various flow quantities and to
respective increments in the radial and axial directions validate the present results with the existing results, the
and Δt being the time increment. Using Eqs. (13) – (15) following parameter values (range) [14] are used in this
in Eq. (8), one can obtain the finite difference scheme for analysis.
the velocity distribution as below. d = z 0 = 7, z1 = 14, β = 0.025, A 0 = 0.2 A1 ,
Re = 300, t = 50; A 0 :0.2 − 0.8;
Δt ⎡ ⎛ ∂p ⎞
k +1
k +1 k θ k, ω : 0.02 − 0.05; φ : 0.2 − 0.5, H :0 − 4;
ui,j = u − ⎢−⎜ − ⎟
i.j + θ : 0 − 0.15; δ :0 − 0.25, t :0 − 90
Re ⎢⎣ ⎝ ∂z ⎠ 2Rik ξj
The flow region is discretized by taking the step size
1
1− 1
in the axial and radial directions as Δz = 0.05 and
+
1
1
⎛1⎞
⎜ ⎟
⎝2⎠
n
{− (u fξ )
k

i,j } n
Δξ = 0.025 respectively and the time step is chosen as
ξ j (R )
k 1+
i
n
Δt = 0.0001 for convergence of the solution to the fifth
order.
1 1 ⎤
{− (u ) } {− (u ) }
1−
1 ⎛1⎞ n k n
−1 k ⎥
2 k
+ 1 ⎜ ⎟ f ξ i, j sξ i , j +H u ⎥i, j
A. Plug core radius
⎝2⎠
n(R i )
k 1+ n
⎥
⎦
Fig. 2 shows the variation of the plug core radius with
axial distance z for different values of k and δ with
(16) H = 1, θ = 0.1, Re = 300, β = 1.0, A0 = 0.5, ω = 0.05, m = 3
Using Eqs. (13) – (15) in the initial and boundary and t = 50 . It is seen that the plug core radius decreases
conditions (9) – (11), one can get as the axial distance increases from 0 to 5 and then it
increases as the axial distance increases from 5 to 8. One
⎧⎛ A + A ⎞ ⎧ I 0 ( H ξ j Ri1 ) ⎫ can notice that for a given value of δ , the plug core radius
⎪⎜ 0 1 ⎟ ⎪⎨1− ⎪
⎬ in the presence of magnetic field decreases as the amplitude parameter k of the artery
⎪⎝ H 2 ⎠ ⎪ I0 (H ) ⎪ radius increases marginally. It is found that the plug core
ui1, j =⎨ ⎩ ⎭
⎪⎛ A0 + A1 ⎞ radius increases significantly with the increase of the
⎪⎜
⎩⎝ 4 ⎠
(
⎟ 1 − ( ξ j Ri )
1 2
) in the abesence of magnetic field depth of the stenosis while k is kept as constant.
(17)
k k
u i ,1 =u i ,2 (18)
k
u i , N +1 =0 (19)

Using the computed velocity distribution, we can

obtain the finite difference schemes to the wall shear
stress, flow rate and longitudinal impedance (resistance)
to flow respectively as below.

1
1
⎤n ⎡ 1 Fig. 2 Variation of plug core radius for different values
{ }
1−
θ ⎛1⎞
⎢ k − (u f ξ )
n k
(τ w )i = + ⎜ ⎟
k
⎥ (20) of k and δ with A0 = 0.5, ω = 0.05, Re = 300,
2 ⎝2⎠ ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ ( Ri ) i,N
β = 1.0, H = 1, θ = 0.1 and t = 50 .
⎡β 1
⎤ B. Velocity distribution
k k 2 k
( )
Qi = 2π Ri ⎢∫ ξ j ui, j dξ j + ∫ ξ j uik, j dξ j ⎥ (21) Fig. 3 depicts the velocity distribution for different
⎣⎢ 0 β ⎦⎥ value of the Hartmann number H with
where β is the plug core radius. A0 = 0.4, ω = 0.02, Re = 300, k = 0.02, β = 0.05, t = 50
H = 4, θ = 0.1 and δ = 0.1 . It is clear that the velocity of
the blood flow decreases significantly with the increases

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of the Hartmann number H. Fig 4 depicts the velocity
distribution for different value of amplitude A0 with
k = 0.02, θ = 0.1, φ = 0.2, H = 2, m = 2, ω = 0.02, δ = 0.1
and l0 = 8 . It is noticed that the velocity distribution
increases considerably with the increase of the amplitude
of the flow.

Fig. 5 Variation of flow rate with axial distance for

Fig. 3 Velocity distribution for different values of
Hartmann number H with A0 = 0.4,ω = 0.02,
Re = 300, k = 0.02, β = 0.05, H = 4,θ = 0.1,
δ = 0.1 and t = 50 .
. .
Fig. 4 Velocity distributions for different values of
amplitude of the flow A0 with ω = 0.02, δ = 0.1
k = 0.02, θ = 0.1, φ = 0.2, H = 2, m = 2,
l0 = 8 .
C. Flow rate
The variation of flow rate with axial distance for
different value of amplitude A0 with ω = 0.02, n = 0.95 ,
δ = 0.25 , H = 2 , θ = 0.1 and l0 = 8 is plotted in Fig. 6. It
is clear that the flow rate decreases with the increase of
the axial distance from z = 0 up to the point where the
stenosis depth is maximum and it increases from that
point till z = 8. It is found that the flow rate increases
significantly with the increases of the amplitude of the
flow A0 .
different value of A0 with ω = 0.02,δ = 0.25,
θ = 0.1, H = 2, and l0 = 8.
D. Skin friction
The variation of skin friction with the axial distance
for different values of the shape of parameter m with
ω = 0.02, n = 0.95, δ = 0.25, A0 = 0.2, H = 2, θ = 0.1 and
l0 = 8 is shown in Fig. 6. One can see that the wall shear
stress increases with the increase of the axial distance
from z = 0 to the point where that depth of the stenosis is
maximum and then it decreases from that location till z =
8. It is also found that the skin friction increases with the
increase of the stenosis shape parameter. The variation of
skin friction with axial distance for different value of δ
and H with ω = 0.02, n = 0.95, A0 = 0.2, θ = 0.1 and l0 = 8
is shown in plotted 7. It is clear that for a given value of
the magnetic field parameter H and the increasing value of
the stenosis depth parameter δ, the skin friction increases
considerably and the reverse behavior is recorded while
the magnetic field parameter H increases when the value
and of the stenosis depth δ is fixed.
Fig. 6. Variation of flow rate with axial distance for
different values of m with ω = 0.02, n = 0.95,
δ = 0.25, H = 2, θ = 0.1 and l0 = 8 .

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Fig. 7. Variation of skin friction with axial distance for
different value of δ and H with
ω = 0.02, n = 0.95, A0 = 0.2, and θ = 0.1 .
IV. CONCLUSION
The pulsatile flow of blood through a mild asymmetric
stenosed artery in the presence of the magnetic field is
analyzed using finite difference method by assuming
blood as H-B model. The results indicate that the velocity
decreases with the increase of the Hartmann number,
amplitude of the flow and the reverse behavior is observed
for skin friction. It is also found that the skin friction and
plug core radius increase with the increase of the depth of
the stenosis. One can predict the physiologically
important flow quantities by using these numerical results
which may find applications in the clinical case studies.
Thus, the H-B fluid model has more applicability in
analyzing the blood flow through stenosed arteries.
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Acknowledgement
The present work is financially supported by the
research university grant of Universiti Sains Malaysia,
Malaysia (Grant Ref. No: 1001/PMATHS/811177)

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