Numerical considerations for advection‐diffusion problems in cardiovascular hemodynamics

Abstract

Numerical simulations of cardiovascular mass transport pose significant challenges due to the wide range of Péclet numbers and backflow at Neumann boundaries. In this paper we present and discuss several numerical tools to address these challenges in the context of a stabilized finite element computational framework. To overcome numerical instabilities when backflow occurs at Neumann boundaries, we propose an approach based on the prescription of the total flux. In addition, we introduce a “consistent flux” outflow boundary condition and demonstrate its superior performance over the traditional zero diffusive flux boundary condition. Lastly, we discuss discontinuity capturing (DC) stabilization techniques to address the well‐known oscillatory behavior of the solution near the concentration front in advection‐dominated flows. We present numerical examples in both idealized and patient‐specific geometries to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed procedures. The three contributions discussed in this paper successfully address commonly found challenges when simulating mass transport processes in cardiovascular flows.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 03, 2020
Source ID
10.1002/cnm.3378

Entities

People

  • C. Alberto Figueroa
  • Christopher J. Arthurs
  • Nitesh Nama
  • Onkar Sahni
  • Sabrina R Lynch
  • Zelu Xu

Organizations

  • American Heart Association
  • Army Research Office
  • King's College London
  • National Science Foundation
  • Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  • University of Michigan

Tags

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Trauma Surgery or Emergency Medicine.