Blood Flow and Heart Attack

Bernoulli’s principle says that the sum of potential,kinetic and pressure energy per unit mass of a incompressible,non viscous fluid remains constant.

Bernoulli’s principle helps in explaining blood flow in artery. The artery may get constricted due to the accumulation of plaque on its inner walls. In order to drive the blood through this constriction a greater demand is placed on the activity of the heart.

The speed of the flow of the blood in this region is raised which lowers the pressure inside and the artery may collapse due to the external pressure. The heart exerts further pressure to open this artery and forces the blood through. As the blood rushes through the opening, the internal pressure once again drops due to same reasons leading to a repeat collapse. This may result in heart attack.

Hydrostatics topics :

Problems on Bernoulli's theorem and Its Applications


Stream line flow
What is pressure ?
Pressure variation with depth
Pascal's Law
Bulk Modulus
Shear modulus
Elastic behavior of Solids


No comments:

Post a Comment