Papers by Author: Rudy Van Impe

Abstract: The buckling behavior of locally supported cylinders is a topic that is still the subject of many investigations. Adequate design rules have yet to be incorporated into the codes. In this contribution, the plastic buckling behavior of a stiffened cylinder on local supports is studied. Our research consists of two principal components, i.e. experiments on scale models and numerical simulations. Here the numerical simulations are discussed. Firstly the effect of the yield stress is investigated. In order to find a design rule, a large parametrical study has to be performed. In this contribution, the characteristics and the results of this study are described. The simulations show that for a radius to thickness ratio of the cylinder equal to 250, the optimal stiffener dimensions correspond with a plastic buckling phenomenon and a failure stress that is larger than the yield stress. For larger values of the ratio, the elastic instability of the stiffeners precedes the plastic buckling and this shows that the stiffener configuration is not suitable for these values of the radius to thickness ratio.

Abstract: In Western countries, cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death, often related to atherosclerosis which can lead to a narrowing of the arteries. To restore perfusion of downstream tissues, an intravascular stent (i.e. a small tube-like structure) can be deployed in the obstructed vessel. The vast majority of stents are balloon expandable and crimped on a folded balloon to obtain a low profile for deliverability and lesion access. Several studies have exploited the finite element method to gain insight in their mechanical behaviour or to study the vascular reaction to stent deployment. However, to date – to the best of our knowledge – none of them include the balloon itself in its actual folded shape. Furthermore, literature on the effect of the crimping process on the expansion behaviour of the stent is even scarcer. Our numerical results - accounting for the presence of the balloon in its actual folded shape - correspond very well with data provided by the manufacturer and consequently our approach could be the basis for new realistic computational models of angioplasty procedures. The plastic deformation, prior to the stent expansion and induced by the crimping procedure, has a minor influence on the overall expansion behaviour of the stent but nevertheless influences the maximum von Mises stress and nominal strain. The maximum von Mises stress drops from 440 N/mm² to 426 N/mm² and the maximum nominal strain value lowers from 0.23 to 0.22 at the end of the expansion phase when neglecting the presence of the residual stresses. Depending on the context in which to use the developed mathematical models, the crimping phase can be discarded from the simulations in order to speed up the analyses.

Abstract: A common treatment to restore normal blood flow in an obstructed artery is the deployment of a stent (i.e. small tube-like structure). The vast majority of stents are crimped on a folded balloon and laser cut from 316L stainless steel tubes. Although, several numerical studies (exploiting the Finite Element Method) are dedicated to the mechanical behaviour of balloon expandable stents, there seems to be no consensus regarding the mechanical properties to describe the inelastic material behaviour of SS316L. Moreover, as the typical dimensions of stent struts (e.g. 100 μm for coronary stents) are of a similar order of magnitude as the average grain size in stainless steel (i.e. 25 μm), continuum approaches relying on macroscopic material properties may be questionable. In addition, an experimental study on stainless steel stent strut specimens showed a size-dependency of the failure strain. In this study the impact of the magnitude of the yield stress on the stent expansion behavior is examined. An increase in the yield stress (from 205 N/mm² to 375 N/mm²) results in an increase of the pressure (from about 0.3 N/mm² to approximately 0.4 N/mm²) which the clinician needs to exert for the balloon to unfold and to reach its cylindrical expanded shape. Furthermore, the effect of the size dependency behavior of the material is studied by monitoring the nominal strain during stent expansion. The maximum value of the nominal strain in the expanded stent (e.g. εn = 23 %) does not exceed the critical value of the failure strain, (i.e. εn = 33 %), moreover the critical values are nowhere exceeded in the whole stent during the expansion. Our numerical results - accounting for the presence of the balloon in its actual folded shape - correspond very well with pressure/diameter data supplied by the manufacturer. Consequently, this study shows that the free expansion of new generation balloon-expandable stents can be studied accurately with computational analysis based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) and relying on macroscopic material properties. In this context, there is no need to implement a size-based constitutive material model, but before accepting the results of the study, one should check in any case the maximum strain against the limit as shown above.