Modelling hollow organs for impact conditions: a simplified case study.

Area of Science:

• Computational mechanics
• Biomechanical modeling
• Numerical simulation

Background:

• Accurate modeling of biological tissues under mechanical stress is crucial for understanding physiological processes and developing medical interventions.
• Intestinal segments are complex structures that undergo significant deformation during physiological events.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the performance of three numerical methods: Lagrangian (LAG), arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE), and control volume (CV).
• To evaluate these methods for simulating the response of a cylindrical pipe, representing intestinal tissue, under large and rapid compressions.

Main Methods:

• The study employed three distinct numerical approaches: LAG, ALE, and CV.
• These methods were applied to model a short cylindrical pipe subjected to dynamic compression.

Main Results:

• The LAG approach yielded results similar to ALE for moderate compression but became stiff and encountered numerical issues at extreme levels.
• The ALE approach avoided numerical issues but incurred a very high computational cost, limiting its scalability.
• The CV approach demonstrated the lowest computational cost and showed potential for large compressions, though its response was softer and requires further parameter investigation.

Conclusions:

• Each numerical method presents distinct trade-offs between accuracy, computational cost, and stability for modeling intestinal compression.
• The control volume method is a promising candidate for large-scale biomechanical simulations due to its efficiency, but requires further refinement.
• Further research is needed to optimize the control volume method's parameters for accurate biomechanical predictions.