Three commercial stents (Palmaz-Schatz, NIR, and BioMatrix) with either an open-cell (20% open-cell) or a closed-cell (80% closed-cell) design, and one new hybrid stent design were numerically modeled using the ABAQUS/Explicit finite element software (Dassault Systèmes, France) to compare their behaviors during deployment in a stenotic artery. The ABAQUS/Explicit dynamic explicit solver was utilized to efficiently capture the complex interactions between the balloon, stent, artery, and plaque during the stent expansion process. The effect of changing the material from stainless steel (SS 316L) to cobalt-chromium (CoCr) and platinum-chromium (PtCr), as well as the reduced thickness of struts from 0.1 mm to 0.08 mm, were investigated. The new hybrid stent design featured reduced axial strut spacing (from 1.2 mm to 0.8 mm), larger corner radii (from 0.2 mm to 0.3 mm), and smaller amplitudes in the ring (from 1.0 mm to 0.8 mm). For the simulations, a balloon-stent-artery model with plaque and average blood pressure of 80 mmHg was used. The results showed that the new hybrid stent did not perform worse in any of the studied biomechanical parameters compared to the commercial open-cell (20% expansion) and closed-cell (15% expansion) stents, and exhibited better performance in maximum expansion (22%) and recoil responses (5% recoil). Changing the material in the new hybrid stent from SS 316L to CoCr or PtCr improved the biomechanical behavior, such as expansion (25%), recoil (3%), and dogboning (0.9), but increased the maximum von Mises stress on the artery-plaque system by 18%. Reducing the strut thickness from 0.1 mm to 0.08 mm decreased the maximum stress on the artery-plaque system by 12%, but undesirably increased dogboning (1.1) and recoil (7%).

The present research was aimed at lowering the deformation temperature by applying cover tube casing (CTC) to AZ31 magnesium alloy samples subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) without triggering surface defects and/or fracture. The Cockcroft-Latham (C & L) fracture model was incorporated into finite element simulation and the critical values for a fracture to occur were determined. The fracture was predicted for the samples deformed at 150, 175, and 200 °C without CTC and with CTC having thicknesses of 1 and 4 mm. The predictions of the model were verified with experimental data. It was found that the workability of AZ31 increased with increasing CTC thickness, as a result of a reduction in the maximum principal stress at the top surface, a uniform distribution of strains, and an increase in the critical damage. In practice, the use of CTC led to the possibility of a reduction in deformation temperature by 25 °C. A sound product with a homogeneous grain structure and a mean grain size of 11 μm was achieved at 175 °C. Thus, the ECAP working window for the alloy was enlarged with accompanying benefits in energy consumption, tooling life, and manufacturing costs.