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Bernouli’s Principle says that in a fluid where there is a high velocity, there will be a low pressure and when the velocity is low the pressure is high. When people get clogged arteries, their blood pressure goes up, but shouldn’t it go down because the smaller the space the higher the velocity.
Doesn’t a high blood pressure due to clogged arteries go against Bernoulli’s Principle?
Posted by admin on May 15th, 2011
Posted in high blood pressure
Maybe it would in an ideal system with a free flow of fluid, but in this case, that free flow doesn’t exist. There is no reservoir or pool of blood someplace – your blood goes directly back into circulation as soon as it makes one lap. And when the arteries and veins are clogged and restricted, your heart needs to work harder to pump it around your body.
Don’t try to outsmart yourself – go see a doctor if you have hypertension, and follow his instructions.
No. Given a constant volume of blood per unit of time, the blood pressure must increase when the artery’s diameter decreases.
Bernoulli’s law applies in cases where the velocity is low compared to the tube diameter, and viscosity is insignificant. The law that applies to restricted flow in smaller tubes with significant viscosity is Poiseuille’s law, which states that the pressure drop across a section of tube is
P1-P2 = 8*Vrate*L*μ/πr^4, where Vrate is volume flow rate and μ is viscosity.
The ref. explains the derivation and describes some examples of its applicability to blood flow.