Self-expanding covered braided stents are routinely used across a diverse range of clinical applications, but few computational studies have attempted to replicate their complex behaviour. In this study, a computational framework was developed to predict the functional performance of bare and covered self-expanding wire braided stents, with a systematic evaluation on the effect of various braid and cover parameters presented. Simulated radial force and kink deformation tests show good agreement to experimental data for covered braided stents across a range of braid angles and cover thicknesses. Our results demonstrate that braid angle is a key governing parameter that dictates the radial and kink performance of both bare-metal and covered wire braided stents. It was also demonstrated that addition of a polymeric cover to a wire braided stent causes a stiffer radial response across all braid angles, particularly when thicker and/or stiffer covering systems were considered. This study represents the first experimentally-validated computational model for covered wire braided stent systems and has excellent potential to be used in future design of these devices for a range of applications.

自膨胀式带盖编织支架通常在各种临床应用中使用，但是很少有计算研究试图复制它们的复杂特性。在这项研究中，开发了一种计算框架来预测裸露的和覆盖的自膨胀钢丝编织支架的功能性能，并对提出的各种编织和覆盖参数的效果进行系统评估。模拟的径向力和扭结变形测试表明，在一定的编织角度和覆盖层厚度范围内，覆盖的编织支架的实验数据具有良好的一致性。我们的结果表明，编织角是决定金属裸线和包线编织支架的径向和扭结性能的关键控制参数。还证明了将聚合物覆盖物添加到金属丝编织的支架上会导致在所有编织角度上都具有更强的径向响应，尤其是当考虑到更厚和/或更硬的覆盖系统时。这项研究代表了用于覆盖金属丝编织支架系统的第一个经过实验验证的计算模型，并具有极好的潜力可用于这些设备的未来设计中，以用于各种应用。