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Nowadays stent therapy is widely adopted to treat atherosclerotic vessel diseases. The high commercial value of these devices and the high prototypation costs require the use of finite element analyses, instead of classical trial and error technique, to design and verify new models. In this paper, we explore the advantages of the finite element method (FEM) in order to investigate new generation stent performance in terms of flexibility. Indeed, the ability of the stent to bend in order to accommodate curvatures and angles of vessels during delivery is one of the most significant prerequisites for optimal stent performance. Two different FEM models, resembling two new generation intravascular stents, were developed. The main model dimensions were obtained by means of a stereo microscope, analyzing one Cordis BX-Velocity and one Carbostent Sirius coronary stent. Bending tests under displacement control in the …