Oluyinka Olugbenga Bamiro

Doctoral Dissertation Announcement

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Candidate: Oluyinka Olugbenga Bamiro

Degree of: Doctor of Philosophy

Department: Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering

Title: A Direct Forcing and Heating Immersed Boundary-Lattice Boltzmann Method for Arterial Wall Thermography

Committee:
Dr. William Liou, Chair
Dr. Parviz Merati
Dr. Tianshu Liu
Dr. May-Fun Liou

Date: Friday, November 11, 2011 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.
Parkview Campus, Room F210

Abstract:
Vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques have high probability of rupture and are characterized by non-homogenous temperature along the arterial wall. The non-homogeneous temperature is attributed to the accumulation of heat releasing inflammatory cells in the arterial wall. Rupture of the vulnerable plaque can lead to acute coronary syndrome and sudden cardiac death. Arterial wall thermography (AWT) can be applied to detect the presence of temperature hot spots along the arterial wall by using temperature measurement devices and to provide an early detection of a vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque. AWT, however, is invasive in nature.
Computational fluid and heat transport models provide a more efficient and non-intrusive approach to examine the effect of plaque geometry and flow parameters on the thermal profile than in-vitro and in-vivo methods. A new thermal immersed boundary method is developed based on the thermal lattice Boltzmann method for the computational simulations of incompressible flows with heat transfer. The new approach is called direct forcing and heating immersed boundary lattice Boltzmann method (IB-LBM). The new approach was validated with classical benchmark cases and applied to study the effects of flow parameters, plaque geometry, and arterial wall elasticity on the thermal profile of an atherosclerotic plaque.