Introduction: An application of a T-junction in the medical field is the simulation of blood flow through bifurcating blood vessels.

Change the outflow ratio according to the size of connecting blood vessels. To more accurately simulate flow through a blood vessel the fluid properties must be added to the Fluent database, the geometry must be adjusted to fit the geometry of bifurcating blood vessels. The flow velocity must also be adjusted according to the velocity of blood through the vessels. This type of study is important as fatty deposits are generally accumulate in areas of slower blood flow and hence at the branching of blood vessels. This simulation could also be adapted to study the flow of air through the air passages, such as the branching system of bronchioles and through the nasal passage. Results: The accuracy of the solution can be tested by a validation procedure. This consists of experimentally testing the solution. Comparative errors present between the experimental and the simulation can be used to predict the accuracy of other similar simulations. As there is no experimental data for this case, the accuracy of the solutions provided was tested by increasing the mesh density using the Gambit software. This was achieved by using interval counts of 10, 20, 50, 60 and 75 on each of the walls and interval counts of 17 on the inlet and outlets with constant boundary conditions. The shear stress distributions were obtained for walls 3 and 4. The maximum wall shear stress on wall 3 was recorded and plotted against the corresponding interval counts as shown in the figure below.
3.7 wall 3 shear stress (Pa) 3.6 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3 0 20 40 interval count 60 80

Figure 1. Plot of the interval counts against the max shear stress at wall 3. Figure 1 has shown that the accuracy of the solution is shown to increase up to a certain mesh concentration. This is shown by the plateau region of the curve and shows a consistency in the solutions obtained at higher mesh densities. Mesh convergence has been reached as the solution appears to be stable and is not changing with higher mesh densities. Plots of the shear stress with higher mesh densities also showed an additional point before the peak in values. This suggests that the fluid is not in full contact with the wall immediately after flow separation. Such information would have been missed if not for the simulation of flow with higher mesh densities and hence the use of Gambit. In second order schemes, the truncation error term produced is proportional to the (interval size) 2. In first order schemes, the truncation error term produced is proportional to the interval size.

Therefore, if the interval size is halved, the truncation error is halved in a first order scheme. However, in a second order scheme, if the interval size is halved, the truncation error is quartered. Therefore, the errors produced in a second order scheme are smaller and hence the residual values of velocity reach convergence sooner. An unstructured grid is composed of triangular mesh elements, whereas a structured grid is composed of quadrilateral mesh elements. In modelling a T-junction, with such simple geometry, it is unnecessary to use a complex or unstructured grid. The use of unstructured grids has been known to introduce truncation errors. It was also found that the number of iterations to convergence of the residuals had shown a relative increase.

Figure 2. Contour plot of the velocity magnitude in a T-junction with fine unstructured meshing. Fig 2 also shows a lower maximum velocity compared to the contour plots of the T-junction with structured meshing. It can also be seen that there is an irregular flow pattern in the region near the walls of the junction as the velocity contour shows a wavy pattern. The use of unstructured grids can lead to large truncation errors and introduce artificial viscosity causing instability An advantage of the unstructured grid generation is that it provides added flexibility in refining the mesh in areas of interest and using larger elements in regions of lesser interest.

Figure 3. Contour plot of the static pressure for the T-junction with the highest mesh density (interval count = 75)

Figure 4. Contour plot of the velocity magnitude for the T-junction with the highest mesh density (interval count = 75)

Figure 5. Comparison of the plots of shear stresses on wall 3 with interval counts of 10 and 75 respectively.

Figure 6. Comparison of the plots of shear stresses on wall 4 with interval counts of 10 and 75 respectively. The plots of shear stress follow the expected trends as the wall fluxes are shown to decrease as the flow passes along the pipe and stabilises. There is also a peak after the initial point on the high mesh density plot. This suggests that there is a small area of separation between the flow and the wall suggesting possible turbulent flow.

The flow split ratio has been found to restrict the amount of fluid that flows through each outlet channel of the T-junction. This can be done by changing the outflow boundary conditions. The figure below clearly shows the variation in flow pattern as the flow rate weightings are changed.

Figure 7. Contour plots of the velocity magnitude for the T-junction with outlet boundary conditions set to outlet 2 flow rate weighting = 1 and outlet 1 flow rate weightings = 0.5 and 0.1 respectively. This change in flow rate weighting can be used to simulate the flow bifurcating into blood vessels of different lumen diameters. This case occurs in situations of low temperature where blood is directed away from the skin and to areas of higher importance (internal organs).

Figure 8. Contour plot of the velocity magnitude and the static pressure of the T-junction with inlet velocity set to 1cm/s.

Figure 9. Shear stress distributions of wall 3 and 4 with inlet velocity set to 1cm/s. It was observed that the number of iterations to the convergence of the residual values increases with increasing inlet velocity. Comparison of the two flow patterns also shows the obvious results such as increased values of shear stress and pressure. It also shows that the fluid flow better separates from walls 2 and 5 at the junction and the eventual dissipation of velocity in the channels near to the outlets. Conclusion: Analysis of the flow pattern suggests that there is a velocity greater than the inlet velocity as the flow develops and the boundary conditions become more established. This could be caused by the effective restriction of the channel cross-sectional area. For greater accuracy a structured, high density mesh was used and a second order scheme was used. An increase in the mesh density (achieved via increasing the interval count at the edges) showed an increase in the accuracy of the solution up to limiting point, after which the solution remains fairly consistent.