Analyses of thermal stress and fracture during cryopreservation of blood vessel

The occurrence of fractures in the vessel wall has been a major problem for human blood vessel cryopreservation. The large volumetric expansion of water during crystallization produces great inner stresses. To solve these complicated heat transfer and thermal stress problems, a model and an analytic method are presented in this paper, with which transient temperature field, the transient stress field inside the blood vessels during freezing can be calculated and analyzed, and the probable cracks or fractures can be predicted. The analytic results of sheep thoracic artery are consistent with the experimental observations of fractures.