Fluid-Structure Interaction Modeling and Validation of Idealized Left Ventricular Blood Flow

Abstract

Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) models are an essential tool in understanding the complex coupling of blood flow in the heart. The objective of this study is to establish a method of comparing data obtained from FSI models and benchtop measurements from phantoms to identify sources of flow changes for use in intraventricular flow analysis. Two geometries are considered: 1) a vascular model consisting of a straight channel with an ellipsoidal swell and 2) an idealized left ventricle (LV) model representative “acorn” shape. Two phantoms are created for each of the two geometries: 3D printed rigid phantoms from a resin and custom-made tissue-mimicking phantoms from a medical gel. Benchtop measurements are made using the phantoms within a custom flow loop setup with pulsatile flow. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are conducted with a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) model. The two flow channel geometries utilized in the experiments are replicated for the simulations. The cavity walls are defined by ghost particles that are rigidly fixed. Maximum pressure drops were 57 mmHg and 196 mmHg for the rigid swell and rigid LV, respectively, whereas maximum pressure drops were 155 mmHg for the gel swell and 140 mmHg for the gel LV. Calculations from the simulations resulted in a maximum pressure drop of 55 mmHg for the swell and 110 mmHg for the LV. This data serves as a first step in corroborating our methodology to utilize the information obtained from both methods to identify and better understand mutual sources of changes in flow patterns.