Intracranial aneurysms (IA) are dilations of the cerebral arteries and, in most cases, have no
symptoms. However, it is a very serious pathology, with a high mortality rate after rupture. Several
studies have been focused only on the hemodynamics of the flow within the IA. However, besides
the effect of the flow, the development and rupture of the IA are also associated with a combination
of other factors such as the wall mechanical behavior. Thus, the objective of this work was to
analyze, in addition to the flow behavior, the biomechanical behavior of the aneurysm wall. For
this, CFD simulations were performed for different Reynolds numbers (1, 100, 500 and 1000) and
for two different rheological models (Newtonian and Carreau). Subsequently, the pressure values of
the fluid simulations were exported to the structural simulations in order to qualitatively observe
the deformations, strains, normal stresses and shear stress generated in the channel wall. For the
structural simulations, a hyperelastic constitutive model (5-parameter Mooney–Rivlin) was used. The
results show that with the increase in the Reynolds number (Re), the recirculation phenomenon is
more pronounced, which is not seen for Re = 1. The higher the Re, the higher the strain, displacement,
normal and shear stresses values.
The authors acknowledge the financial support from the project EXPL/EME-EME/0732/2021,
funded by the NORTE 2020 Portugal Regional Operational Programme, under the PORTUGAL
2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and
by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT). This work was also supported by Fundação para
a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) under the strategic grants UIDB/04077/2020, UIDB/04436/2020,
UIDB/00319/2020 and UIDB/00532/2020. Andrews Souza and Violeta Carvalho also acknowledge
the financial support by FCT through the individual research grants 2021.07961.BD and
UI/BD/151028/2021, respectively.
