Plastic Deformation during the Expansion of a Stent

Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty with stenting is a widely used method for the treatment of atherosclerosis. During this procedure a stent is deployed into the blood vessel by means of a balloon. The expanded stent acts as a scaffold that keeps the blood vessel open.

Stent design is of significance for the procedure, because damage can be inflicted on the artery by both the nonuniform expansion of the stent, as well as by its foreshortening.

This model studies the deformation of a stent subjected to a radial outward pressure using an elasto-plastic material model with linear hardening.

Boundary and deformed shape plot of the deformation.

Animated Model