First blood: An efficient, hybrid one- and zero-dimensional, modular hemodynamic solver.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Cardiovascular Physiology

Background:

• Low-dimensional models (1D/0D) are crucial for simulating human blood circulation.
• Existing models often focus on specific components like the arterial network or heart.
• A unified approach is needed to integrate these models for comprehensive hemodynamic analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present first_blood, a novel combined 1D-0D solver for low-dimensional hemodynamic modeling.
• To demonstrate the solver's capability in modeling the entire human arterial system, heart, and peripherals.
• To highlight the computational efficiency and modularity of the first_blood solver.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing an extended method of characteristics to solve momentum, mass conservation, and viscoelastic wall equations.
• Employing a general zero-dimensional (0D) nonlinear solver for heart and peripheral lumped models.
• Implementing a modular architecture allowing for flexible 1D-0D hemodynamic model configurations.

Main Results:

• The first_blood solver successfully models the human arterial system, heart, and peripherals.
• Simulations of a heartbeat complete in approximately 2 seconds on an average PC, indicating high computational efficiency (twice real-time).
• The solver's parameters are literature-based and validated for physiologically relevant outputs.

Conclusions:

• first_blood provides an efficient and versatile open-source tool for simulating complex hemodynamic phenomena.
• The solver's real-time performance and modularity make it valuable for cardiovascular research and clinical applications.
• The open-source nature facilitates accessibility and further development in the field of computational physiology.