The vibration of an artery-like tube conveying pulsatile fluid flow

Abstract A hybrid method for investigating pulsatile fluid flow in a long, thin, artery-like tube subjected to external excitations is presented. The non-linear partial differential equations governing the motion of the system, which incorporate the influence of circumferential strains, are solved by a combination of a finite element method, a finite difference method and a method of characteristics with interpolation. An initially axially stretched elastic tube conveying pulsating fluid, simply supported at both ends, is modelled to assess the effect of external harmonic excitation on the dynamic responses of the tube and the fluid flow. The results agree well with new experimental data. Comparison of the predicted results with those of a decoupled model demonstrates that it is necessary to consider the mechanism of fluid-structure interaction fully in the study of initially stretched cylindrical tubes conveying pulsatile fluid flow. An analysis of these coupling effects is presented for Womersley numbers α = 2.81 and 3.97 and a mean flow Reynolds number Re = 875.