Impact of atrial fibrillation on left atrium haemodynamics: A computational fluid dynamics study

We analyse the haemodynamics of the left atrium, highlighting differences between healthy individuals and patients affected by atrial fibrillation. The computational study is based on patient-specific geometries of the left atria to simulate blood flow dynamics. We design a novel procedure to compute the boundary data for the 3D haemodynamic simulations, which are particularly useful in absence of data from clinical measurements. With this aim, we introduce a parametric definition of atrial displacement, and we use a closed-loop lumped parameter model of the whole cardiovascular circulation conveniently tuned on the basis of the patient's characteristics. We evaluate several fluid dynamics indicators for atrial haemodynamics, validating our numerical results in terms of clinical measurements; we investigate the impact of geometric and clinical characteristics on the risk of thrombosis. To highlight the correlation of thrombus formation with atrial fibrillation, according to medical evidence, we propose a novel indicator: age stasis. It arises from the combination of Eulerian and Lagrangian quantities. This indicator identifies regions where slow flow cannot properly rinse the chamber, accumulating stale blood particles, and creating optimal conditions for clots formation.

Splitting methods based on algebraic factorization for fluid-structure interaction

Annalisa Quaini, Alfio Quarteroni

We discuss in this paper the numerical approximation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems dealing with strong added-mass effect. We propose new semi-implicit algorithms based on inexact block-LU factorization of the linear system obtained after the space-time discretization and linearization of the FSI problem. As a result, at each iteration the fluid velocity is computed separately from the coupled pressure-structure velocity system, reducing the computational cost. We investigate explicit-implicit decomposition through algebraic splitting techniques originally designed for the FSI problem. This approach leads to two different families of methods which extend to FSI the algebraic pressure correction method and the Yosida method, two schemes that were previously adopted for pure fluid problems. Furthermore, we have considered the inexact factorization of the fluid- structure system as a preconditioner. The numerical properties of these methods have been tested on a model problem representing a blood-vessel system.

2008

Algorithms for fluid-structure interaction problems arising in hemodynamics

Annalisa Quaini

We discuss in this thesis the numerical approximation of fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems with a particular concern (albeit not exclusive) on hemodynamics applications. Firstly, we model the blood as an incompressible fluid and the artery wall as an elastic structure. To solve the coupled problem, we propose new semi-implicit algorithms based on inexact block-LU factorization of the linear system obtained after the space-time discretization and linearization of the FSI problem. As a result, the fluid velocity is computed separately from the coupled pressure-structure velocity system at each iteration, hence reducing the computational cost. This approach leads to two different families of methods which extend to FSI problems schemes that were previously adopted for pure fluid problems. The algorithms derived from inexact factorization methods are compared with other schemes based on two preconditioners for the FSI system. The first one is the classical Dirichlet-Neumann preconditioner, which has the advantage of modularity (i.e. it allows to reuse existing fluid and structure codes with minimum effort). Unfortunately, its performance is very poor in case of large added-mass effect, as it happens in hemodynamics. Alternatively, we consider a non-modular approach which consists in preconditioning the coupled system with a suitable diagonal scaling combined with an ILUT preconditioner. The system is then solved by a Krylov method. The drawback of this procedure is the loss of modularity. Independently of the preconditioner, the efficiency of semi-implicit algorithms is highlighted. All the methods are tested on two and three-dimensional blood-vessel systems. The algorithm combining the non-modular ILUT preconditioner with Krylov methods proved to be the fastest. However, modular and inexact factorization based methods should not be disregarded because they can considerably benefit from code parallelization, unlike the ILUT-Krylov approach. Finally, we improve the structure model by representing the vessel wall as a linear poroelastic medium. Our non-modular approach and the partitioned procedures arising from a domain decomposition viewpoint are extended to fluid-poroelastic structure interactions. Their numerical performance are analyzed and compared on simplified blood-vessel systems.

EPFL2009

Algorithms for fluid-structure interaction problems arising in hemodynamics

Annalisa Quaini

EPFL2009