Fluid-structure interaction modeling in cardiovascular medicine - A systematic review 2017-2019

Finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are generally insufficient independently to model the physics of the cardiovascular system. Individually, they are unable to resolve the interplay between the solid and fluid domains, and the interplay is integral to the functioning of the system. The use of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) methods overcomes these shortcomings by providing the means to couple the fluid and structural domains. In the last decade, the utilization of FSI has greatly increased in cardiovascular engineering. In this study, we conducted a systematic review process of more than 1000 journal articles to investigate the implementation of One-Way and Two-Way FSI for cardiovascular applications. We explored the utility of FSI to study aneurysms, the hemodynamics of patient anatomies, native and prosthetic heart valve dynamics, flow and hemodynamics of blood pumps, and atherosclerosis. Computational resource requirements, implementation strategies and future directions of FSI for cardiovascular applications are also discussed.