  It has been shown that geometrical, structural properties vary along the
length of the aortic arch. There is a scarcity of studies focus on the
variation in the vessel wall thickness of aortic arch. The central premise of
this study is that considering the variation in the vessel wall thickness along
the circumference of the aortic arch to be governed by the uniform stress
distribution across the vessel wall, meeting the principle of optimal
mechanical operation of which the distribution of stress across the vessel wall
is assumed to be uniform so as to create a favorable mechanical environment for
the mechanosensitive resident vascular cells. Aortic arch was created with
image-derived three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction technique. A
structure-motivated constitutive model was utilized in the numerical modeling
and direct boundary value problem was solved. Stress distribution across the
vessel wall under physiological loading condition was predicted in
circumferential direction to test the role of the wall thickness. The results
showed the variation of the vessel wall thickness in the circumferential
direction and uniform distribution of the circumferential stress in the aortic
wall which implies a favorable mechanical environment for the resident
mechano-sensitive vascular smooth muscle cells. Correlation of geometrical and
simulation data support the proposed principle of optimal mechanical operation
for the aortic arch.
