Author(s)

A. Figueroa, I. Vignon-Clementel, K. Jansen, T. J. R. Hughes & C. A. Taylor

Abstract

Blood velocity and pressure fields in large arteries are greatly influenced by the deformability of the vessel. However, computational methods for simulating blood flow in three-dimensional models of arteries have either considered a rigid wall assumption for the vessel or significantly simplified or reduced geometries. Computing blood flow in deformable domains using standard techniques like the ALE method remains a formidable problem for large, realistic anatomic and physiologic models of the cardiovascular system. We have developed a new method to simulate blood flow in three-dimensional deformable models of arteries. The method couples the equations of the deformation of the vessel wall at the variational level as a boundary condition for the fluid domain. We consider a strong coupling of the degrees-of-freedom of the fluid and the solid domains. The effect of the vessel wall boundary is therefore added in a monolithic way to the fluid equations, resulting in a remarkably robust scheme. Keywords: finite element, three-dimensional, blood flow, wave propagation.

Keywords

finite element, three-dimensional, blood flow, wave propagation.