Modeling blood flow circulation in intracranial arterial networks: a comparative 3D/1D simulation study

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Accurate modeling of intracranial blood flow is crucial for understanding cerebrovascular diseases.
• Patient-specific computational models offer insights into individual arterial hemodynamics.
• Comparing different modeling approaches (1D vs. 3D) is essential for validating simulation accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the results of one-dimensional (1D) and three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulations of pulsatile blood flow.
• To analyze the pressure and flow rate distribution in patient-specific intracranial arterial networks using both 1D and 3D models.
• To investigate the impact of arterial wall properties (rigid vs. compliant) on blood flow dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Development and application of patient-specific 1D and 3D computational models of intracranial arterial networks.
• Numerical simulation of pulsatile blood flow under physiological conditions.
• Comparison of pressure and flow rate distributions obtained from 1D and 3D models with varying wall elasticity assumptions.

Main Results:

• Good agreement was observed between 1D and 3D models with rigid walls regarding mass flow distribution at arterial junctions and pressure drop along arteries.
• Three-dimensional simulations with rigid walls predicted higher amplitude temporal oscillations in flow rate and pressure compared to 1D simulations with compliant walls.
• The sensitivity of flow and pressure to variations in arterial elasticity parameters was investigated using the 1D model.

Conclusions:

• One-dimensional and three-dimensional modeling approaches provide comparable results for rigid arterial walls in intracranial networks.
• Arterial wall compliance significantly influences the amplitude of flow and pressure oscillations, with 1D models requiring compliant walls for accurate representation.
• Further investigation into the role of wall elasticity is warranted for refining computational hemodynamics models.