A one dimensional model to predict steady flow through a collapsible tube

Flow through tubes that can collapse during normal operation characterizes virtually every bodily fluid-carrying vessel. A MATLAB program was developed to solve a one-dimensional numerical model for steady state collapsible tube flow. The numerical results were then compared with experimental findings of Bertram [10]. The model included a novel polynomial-defined relationship between the Reynolds number and skin friction coefficient. The results are in strong agreement with experiment (r 0.95). Further correlation analysis showed significance at the 0.025 level [r(14) = 0.986; r(17) = 0.975; r(15) = 0.990; r(15) = 0.956; r(19) = 0.943; p ≪ 0.001].An average error of less than ten percent existed between computations and experiment.