Collateral Flow Network in Peripheral Artery Disease (2D)

When a femoral or popliteal artery narrows or occludes in peripheral artery disease, the limb does not simply lose its blood supply — a network of pre-existing small collateral vessels around the lesion can reroute flow around the blockage. This 2D diagram solves a real lumped-parameter hemodynamic model of that bypass: the stenosed segment and its parallel collateral vessels form a resistor network governed by the Hagen–Poiseuille law (R ∝ length / radius⁴), combined via parallel-resistor-network math, and animated particles trace the actual computed flow through each path, speeding into a visible jet at a tight stenosis. Adjust stenosis severity, collateral count, collateral caliber and perfusion pressure to see how flow redistributes in real time, and read directly how much of the flow a stenosis takes away the collateral network manages to restore.