Defining the principles for the motion of blood through arteries

TL;DR

Euler's 1742 work laid the foundation for understanding blood flow in arteries by applying principles of fluid mechanics to elastic tubes, influencing modern hemodynamics and numerical blood flow modeling.

Contribution

This paper presents the first known translation and analysis of Euler's pioneering work on blood flow mechanics in elastic arteries from Latin.

Findings

Established principles of mass and momentum conservation for arterial flow

Analytical framework for circulatory physiology

Influenced modern numerical methods in blood flow analysis

Abstract

This is an annotated translation from Latin of 'Principia pro motu sanguinis per arterias determinando' in which Euler develops the first known work on the mechanics of flows in elastic tubes, intended to the first contest of the Dijon Academy of 1742. In this work, Euler applied the principles of mass conservation and momentum conservation to the one dimensional flow of an incompressible fluid through an elastic tube driven by a piston pump. These would allow the analytical treatment of circulatory physiology and hemodynamics, which still undergird the most advanced numerical methods in use today for blood flow analysis in arterial networks.