Abstract: The geometric model of a carotid artery bifurcation was constructed from the CT images of a real patient. Using this model， the velocity and pressure distribution of the carotid arteries were simulated by a finite element software ANSYS. Further analysis was done on the hemodynamic characteristics of the carotid artery bifurcation， such as the wall shear stress distribution at different time points， the blood velocity field at different time points， and the characteristics of turbulence. Finally the blood resistance of carotid arteries was analyzed. The results turned out that the wall shear stress is almost the lowest at the sinus， the turbulence occurs nearby the sinus. There is a high pulse for blood resistance at the beginning of systole period. These findings could be useful for relevant research of cardiovascular diseases.

Key words: carotid artery, computational fluid dynamics, blood resistance, CT image, finite element method