Stability of Membrane Elastodynamics with Applications to Cylindrical Aneurysms

The enlargement and rupture of intracranial and abdominal aortic aneurysms constitutes a major medical problem. It has been suggested that enlargement and rupture are due to mechanical instabilities of the associated complex fluid-solid interaction in the lesions. In this paper, we examine a coupled fluid-structure mathematical model for a cylindrical geometry representing an idealized aneurysm using both analytical and numerical techniques. A stability analysis for this subclass of aneurysms is presented. It is shown that this subclass of aneurysms is dynamically stable both with and without a viscoelastic contribution to the arterial wall.