Nanodrug-carrier delivery in the blood stream is strongly influenced by nanoparticle (NP) dispersion. This paper presents a numerical study on NP transport and dispersion in red blood cell (RBC) suspensions under shear and channel flow conditions, utilizing an immersed boundary fluid-structure interaction model with a lattice Boltzmann fluid solver, an elastic cell membrane model and a particle motion model driven by both hydrodynamic loading and Brownian dynamics. The model can capture the multiphase features of the blood flow. Simulations were performed to obtain an empirical formula to predict NP dispersion rate for a range of shear rates and cell concentrations. NP dispersion rate predictions from the formula were then compared to observations from previous experimental and numerical studies. The proposed formula is shown to accurately predict the NP dispersion rate. The simulation results also confirm previous findings that the NP dispersion rate is strongly influenced by local disturbances in the flow due to RBC motion and deformation. The proposed formula provides an efficient method for estimating the NP dispersion rate in modeling NP transport in large-scale vascular networks without explicit RBC and NP models.

Currently, the effect of vascular dynamic bending (VDB) has not been fully considered when studying cardiovascular stents’ long-term mechanical properties, as the previous studies about stent’s mechanical properties mostly focus on the effect of vascular pulsation (VP). More and more clinical reports suggested that the effect of VDB have a significant impact on stent. In this paper, an explicit-implicit coupling simulation method was applied to analyze the mechanical responses of cardiovascular stents considering the effect of VDB. The effect of VP on stent mechanical properties was also studied and compared to the effect of VDB. The results showed that the dynamic bending deformation occurred in stents due to the effect of VDB. The effects of VDB and VP resulted in alternating stress states of the stent, while the VDB alternate stresses effective on the stent were almost three times larger than that of the VP. The stress concentration under VDB mainly occurred in bridge struts and the maximal stress was located in the middle loops of the stent. However, the stress distributed uniformly in the stents under the effect of VP. Stent fracture occurred more frequently as a result of VDB with the predicted fracture position located in the bridging struts of the stent. These results are consistent with the reported data in clinical literatures. The stress of the vessel under VDB was higher, than that caused by VP. The results showed that the effect of VDB has a significant impact on the stent’s stress distribution, fatigue performance and overall stress on the vessel, thus it is necessary to be considered when analyzing stent’s long-term mechanical properties. Meanwhile, the results showed that the explicit-implicit coupling simulation can be applied to analyze stent mechanical properties.

Curing deformation prediction plays an important role in guiding the tools, curing process design, etc. Analytical methods can provide a rapid prediction and in-depth understanding of the curing deformation mechanism. In this paper, an analytical model is presented to study the cure-induced deformation of composite laminates. Based on the classical laminate theory, the thermal stress and deformation of composites during the curing process are calculated by considering the evolution of the mechanical properties of resin. Additionally, the coupling stiffness of the laminate is taken into consideration in the analytical model. An interface layer between the tool and the part is developed to simulate the variation of the tool–part interaction with the degree of resin cure. The maximum curing deformations and deformation profiles of different lay-up composite parts predicted by the proposed model are compared with the results of the finite element method and previous literature reports. Then, a comprehensive parametric study is carried out to investigate the influence of curing cycle, geometry, tool thermal expansion, and resin characteristics on the curing deformation of composite parts. The results reveal that geometry has a significant influence on the curing deformation of composite parts, but for dimensionally determined parts, curing deformation is mainly attributable to their own anisotropy in macro and micro aspects, as well as the stretching effect of the tool on the part. The percentage contribution of different factors to curing deformation composites with different lay-ups and geometries is also discussed.

Overlapping stents are widely used in vascular stent surgeries. However, the rate of stent fractures (SF) and in-stent restenosis (ISR) after using overlapping stents is higher than that of single stent implantations. Published studies investigating the nature of overlapping stents rely primarily on medical images, which can only reveal the effect of the surgery without providing insights into how stent overlap influences the implantation process. In this paper, a finite element analysis of the overlapping stent implantation process was performed to study the interaction between overlapping stents. Four different cases, based on three typical stent overlap modes and two classical balloons, were investigated. The results showed that overlapping contact patterns among struts were edge-to-edge, edge-to-surface, and noncontact. These were mainly induced by the nonuniform deformation of the stent in the radial direction and stent tubular structures. Meanwhile, the results also revealed that the contact pressure was concentrated in the edge of overlapping struts. During the stent overlap process, the contact pattern was primarily edge-to-edge contact at the beginning and edge-to-surface contact as the contact pressure increased. The interactions between overlapping stents suggest that the failure of overlapping stents frequently occurs along stent edges, which agrees with the previous experimental research regarding the safety of overlapping stents. This paper also provides a fundamental understanding of the mechanical properties of overlapping stents.