  We report computational results of blood flow through a model of the human
aortic arch and a vessel of actual diameter and length. On the top of the
aortic arch the branching of the %%three arteries are included: the subclavian
and jugular. A realistic pulsatile flow is used in all simulations.
Calculations for bifurcation type vessels are also carried out and presented.
Different mathematical methods for numerical solution of the fluid dynamics
equations have been considered. The non-Newtonian behaviour of the human blood
is investigated together with turbulence effects. A detailed time-dependent
mathematical convergence test has been carried out. The results of computer
simulations of the blood flow in vessels of three different geometries are
presented: for pressure, strain rate and velocity component distributions we
found significant disagreements between our results obtained with realistic
non-Newtonian treatment of human blood and the widely used method in the
literature: a simple Newtonian approximation. A significant increase of the
strain rate and, as a result, a wall shear stress distribution, is found in the
region of the aortic arch. Turbulent effects are found to be important,
particularly in the case of bifurcation vessels.
