An Efficient Finite Element Framework to Assess Flexibility Performances of SMA Self-Expandable Carotid Artery Stents

Journal of Functional Biomaterials

Mauro Ferraro³  Ferdinando Auricchio³  Elisa Boatti³  Giulia Scalet²  Michele Conti³  Simone Morganti¹  Alessandro Reali³ 

[1] Department of Electrical, Computer and Biomedical Engineering (DIII) , Università di Pavia, Pavia 27100, Italy; E-Mail:;Laboratoire de Mécanique des Solides, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau 91128, France; E-Mail:;Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICAR), Università di Pavia , Pavia 27100, Italy; E-Mails:

关键词: carotid artery stents;    shape memory alloys;    finite element analysis;    stent flexibility;   

DOI  :  10.3390/jfb6030585

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Computer-based simulations are nowadays widely exploited for the prediction of the mechanical behavior of different biomedical devices. In this aspect, structural finite element analyses (FEA) are currently the preferred computational tool to evaluate the stent response under bending. This work aims at developing a computational framework based on linear and higher order FEA to evaluate the flexibility of self-expandable carotid artery stents. In particular, numerical simulations involving large deformations and inelastic shape memory alloy constitutive modeling are performed, and the results suggest that the employment of higher order FEA allows accurately representing the computational domain and getting a better approximation of the solution with a widely-reduced number of degrees of freedom with respect to linear FEA. Moreover, when buckling phenomena occur, higher order FEA presents a superior capability of reproducing the nonlinear local effects related to buckling phenomena.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.