NONLINEAR WAVES PROPAGATING IN AN INHOMOGENEOUS BLOOD VESSEL

A model for describing blood pressure propagation wave in artery is proposed. Considering blood viscosity, slowly varying arterial parameters and arterial bifurcations, we obtain the dynamical equation of blood flow. We show that the blood viscosity attenuate the nonlinear blood wave amplitude mainly in small artery. On the other hand, the variation of arterial parameters (such as radius and Young's modulus) amplify the amplitude of the nonlinear blood wave in large arteries. We also investigate how the nonlinear blood wave (or a soliton) is reflected and transmitted at the arterial bifurcations. It can be concluded that the parameters at the bifurcation determine whether there is substantial reflection or not, but the transmission in each bifurcation is approximately the same as the incident wave.