Ulm, Univ., Diss., 2009.

Modelling of cerebrospinal fluid flow is important for understanding its influence on central nervous system, especially spinal cord. One of the reasons for its study is a disease called syringomyelia that probably develops as a result of severance of neural pathways by bubbles emerging during the propagation of pressure (expan- sion) disturbances through spinal cord and its surroundings. It is characterized by fluid-filled cavities in spinal cord. In this thesis, a model of fluid-filled co-axial elastic tubes is proposed that can help us simulate pressure disturbances propa- gation through spinal cord including its interactions and possible increase as the result of interferences or reflection. We derive quasi-one-dimensional governing equations in the form of nonlinear hyperbolic system of conservational laws and with its numerical solution by two-step Lax-Wendroff method with added artifi- cial viscosity we can quantitatively estimate almost twofold increase of pressure difference. 1