Investigation of nanoscale drug particles and their effect on the fluid dynamic properties of the blood

Abstract

Research has shown that gold nanoparticles increase the efficiency of radiation treatments of cancer by up to 25%. This means patients can be exposed to lower doses of radiation that does more concentrated damage to cancerous cells and less damage to healthy surrounding tissue. Before these nanoparticles can be introduced to the human body, the behavior of these particles in the blood stream must be understood. A model of gold nanoparticle flow through the aortic arch was developed in the present investigation for predicting behavior of these particles in the human body. A set of initial modeling parameters was developed out of existing data pertaining to blood flow rates and viscosities of a blood-mimicking fluid across a temperature range of 30-40 degrees Celsius. The aorta wall was modeled as a no-slip solid surface. Computational fluid dynamic models using ANSYS Fluent across this temperature range have generated general velocity distributions of blood flow through the aortic arch and identifies several areas of possible recirculation. The current state of the model provides preliminary results, which are valuable in generating an accurate model of gold nanoparticles flowing through the aortic arch.