Model order reduction of flow based on a modular geometrical approximation of blood vessels

We are interested in a reduced order method for the efficient simulation of blood flow in arteries. The blood dynamics is modeled by means of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Our algorithm is based on an approximated domain-decomposition of the target geometry into a number of subdomains obtained from the parametrized deformation of geometrical building blocks (e.g., straight tubes and model bifurcations). On each of these building blocks, we build a set of spectral functions by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of a large number of snapshots of finite element solutions (offline phase). The global solution of the Navier–Stokes equations on a target geometry is then found by coupling linear combinations of these local basis functions by means of spectral Lagrange multipliers (online phase). Being that the number of reduced degrees of freedom is considerably smaller than their finite element counterpart, this approach allows us to significantly decrease the size of the linear system to be solved in each iteration of the Newton–Raphson algorithm. We achieve large speedups with respect to the full order simulation (in our numerical experiments, the gain is at least of one order of magnitude and grows inversely with respect to the reduced basis size), whilst still retaining satisfactory accuracy for most cardiovascular simulations.

Reduction techniques for PDEs built upon Reduced Basis and Domain Decomposition Methods with applications to hemodynamics

Luca Pegolotti

This thesis focuses on the development and validation of a reduced order technique for cardiovascular simulations. The method is based on the combined use of the Reduced Basis method and a Domain Decomposition approach and can be seen as a particular implementation of the Reduced Basis Element method. Our contributions include the application to the unsteady three-dimensional Navier--Stokes equations, the introduction of a reduced coupling between subdomains, and the reconstruction of arteries with deformed elementary building blocks. The technique is divided into two main stages: the offline and the online phases. In the offline phase, we define a library of reference building blocks (e.g., tubes and bifurcations) and associate with each of these a set of Reduced Basis functions for velocity and pressure. The set of Reduced Basis functions is obtained by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition of a large number of flow solutions called snapshots; this step is expensive in terms of computational time. In the online phase, the artery of interest is geometrically approximated as a composition of subdomains, which are obtained from the parametrized deformation of the aforementioned building blocks. The local solution in each subdomain is then found as a linear combination of the Reduced Basis functions defined in the corresponding building block. The strategy to couple the local solutions is of utmost importance. In this thesis, we devise a nonconforming method for the coupling of Partial Differential Equations that takes advantage of the definition of a small number of Lagrange multiplier basis functions on the interfaces. We show that this strategy allows us to preserve the h-convergence properties of the discretization method of choice for the primal variable even when a small number of Lagrange multiplier basis functions is employed. Moreover, we test the flexibility of the approach in scenarios in which different discretization algorithms are employed in the subdomains, and we also use it in a fluid-structure interaction benchmark. The introduction of the Lagrange multipliers, however, is associated with stability problems deriving from the saddle-point structure of the global system. In our Reduced Order Model, the stability is recovered by means of supremizers enrichment. In our numerical simulations, we specifically focus on the effects of the Reduced Basis and geometrical approximations on the quality of the results. We show that the Reduced Order Model performs similarly to the corresponding high-fidelity one in terms of accuracy. Compared to other popular models for cardiovascular simulations (namely 1D models), it also allows us to compute a local reconstruction of the Wall-Shear Stress on the vessel wall. The speedup with respect to the Finite Element method is substantial (at least one order of magnitude), although the current implementation presents bottlenecks that are addressed in depth throughout the thesis.

EPFL2021

FaCSI: A block parallel preconditioner for fluid-structure interaction in hemodynamics

Simone Deparis, Davide Forti, Gwenol Grandperrin, Alfio Quarteroni

Modeling Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) in the vascular system is mandatory to reliably compute mechanical indicators in vessels undergoing large deformations. In order to cope with the computational complexity of the coupled 3D FSI problem after discretizations in space and time, a parallel solution is often mandatory. In this paper we propose a new block parallel preconditioner for the coupled linearized FSI system obtained after space and time discretization. We name it FaCSI to indicate that it exploits the Factorized form of the linearized FSI matrix, the use of static Condensation to formally eliminate the interface degrees of freedom of the fluid equations, and the use of a SIMPLE preconditioner for saddle-point problems. FaCSI is built upon a block Gauss-Seidel factorization of the FSI Jacobian matrix and it uses ad-hoc preconditioners for each physical component of the coupled problem, namely the fluid, the structure and the geometry. In the fluid subproblem, after operating static condensation of the interface fluid variables, we use a SIMPLE preconditioner on the reduced fluid matrix. Moreover, to efficiently deal with a large number of processes, FaCSI exploits efficient single field preconditioners, e.g., based on domain decomposition or the multigrid method. We measure the parallel performances of FaCSI on a benchmark cylindrical geometry and on a problem of physiological interest, namely the blood flow through a patient-specific femoropopliteal bypass. We analyze the dependence of the number of linear solver iterations on the cores count (scalability of the preconditioner) and on the mesh size (optimality). (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science2016

MATHICSE Technical Report : FaCSI : A block parallel preconditioner for fluid-structure interaction in hemodynamics

Simone Deparis, Davide Forti, Gwenol Grandperrin, Alfio Quarteroni

Modeling Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) in the vascular system is mandatory to reliably compute mechanical indicators in vessels undergoing large deformations. In order to cope with the computational complexity of the coupled 3D FSI problem after discretizations in space and time, a parallel solution is often mandatory. In this paper we propose a new block parallel preconditioner for the coupled linearized FSI system obtained after space and time discretization. We name it FaCSI to indicate that it exploits the factorized form of the linearized FSI matrix, the use of static condensation to formally eliminate the interface degrees of freedom of the fluid equations, and the use of a SIMPLE preconditioner for saddle-point problems. FaCSI is builtupon a block Gauss-Seidel factorization of the FSI Jacobian matrix and it uses ad-hoc preconditioners for each physical component of the coupled problem, namely the fluid, the structure and the geometry. In the fluid subproblem, after operating static condensation of the interface fluid variables, we use a SIMPLE preconditioner on the reduced fluid matrix. Moreover, to efficiently deal with a large number of processes, FaCSI exploits efficient single field preconditioners, e.g., based on domain decomposition or the multigrid method. We measure the parallel performances of FaCSI on a benchmark cylindrical geometry and on a problem of physiological interest, namely the blood flow through a patient-specific femoropopliteal bypass. We analyse the dependence of the number of linear solver iterations on the cores count (scalability of the preconditioner) and on the mesh size (optimality).

MATHICSE2015

Reduction techniques for PDEs built upon Reduced Basis and Domain Decomposition Methods with applications to hemodynamics

Luca Pegolotti

EPFL2021