On coupling a lumped parameter heart model and a three-dimensional finite element aorta model.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Physiology
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Aortic blood flow and pressure arise from complex interactions between the heart and arterial system.
• Accurate simulation of these hemodynamics is crucial for understanding cardiovascular health and disease.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a computational method integrating a lumped parameter heart model with 3D finite element analysis for simulating aortic hemodynamics.
• To generate physiologically realistic aortic flow and pressure waveforms.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a lumped parameter heart model with a time-varying elastance function as an inflow boundary condition.
• Employed a coupled multidomain method to strongly couple the heart model with 3D finite element models of the aorta.
• Implemented velocity profile constraints for robust simulation of aortic valve open and closed states.

Main Results:

• Achieved physiologically realistic aortic flow and pressure waveforms.
• Successfully demonstrated the method in patient-specific models of a normal human thoracic aorta.
• Validated the approach in an aortic coarctation model under pre- and post-intervention scenarios.

Conclusions:

• The integrated computational approach provides a robust and accurate method for simulating cardiovascular hemodynamics.
• This technique enables detailed analysis of aortic blood flow and pressure dynamics in various physiological and pathological conditions.