Spectral element analysis of the blood flow in human arteries.

It has been well recognized that cardiovascular diseases are closely related to blood flow characteristics. Thus, how to predict them accurately enough in an efficient way has been an important research issue. This paper introduces a 1D spectral element model for the blood flow in the human arteries with varying cross-sections. The variational approach is used to formulate the 1D spectral element model. The exact wave solutions to the frequency-domain governing differential equations are used to determine the frequency-dependent shape functions. The spectral finite element model is then applied to some example arteries to investigate flow characteristics such as blood flow rate and blood pressure through the arteries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]