Computational Cardiovascular Flow Analysis with the Variational Multiscale Methods

Abstract

Computational cardiovascular flow analysis can provide valuable information to medical doctors in a wide range of patientspecific cases, including cerebral aneurysms, aortas and heart valves. The computational challenges faced in this class of flow analyses also have a wide range. They include unsteady flows, complex cardiovascular geometries, moving boundaries and interfaces, such as the motion of the heart valve leaflets, contact between moving solid surfaces, such as the contact between the leaflets, and the fluid–structure interaction between the blood and the cardiovascular structure. Many of these challenges have been or are being addressed by the Space–Time Variational Multiscale (ST-VMS) method, Arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian VMS (ALE-VMS) method, and the VMS-based Immersogeometric Analysis (IMGA-VMS), which serve as the core computational methods, and the special methods used in combination with them. We provide an overview of the core and special methods and present examples of challenging computations carried out with these methods, including aorta and heart valve flow analyses.