Steady and physiological flows of a Newtonian fluid and blood in the abdominal gorta/iliac artery bifurcation are numerically simulated to understand the etiology and pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Distributions of velocity, pressure, and wall shear stress in the bifurcated arterial vessel model are calculated to investigate the differences of flow characteristics between steady and physiological flows and to compare flow characteristics of blood with that of a Newtonian fluid For the given Reynolds number the flow characteristics of physiological flows for a Newtonian fluid and blood in the bifurcated arterial vessel are quite different from thcse of steady flows. No flow separation or flow reversal in the bifurcated region appears downstream of a stenosis during the acceleration phase. However, during the deceleration phase the flow exhibits flow separation in the outer walls of daugtlter branches, which extends to the entire wall region.