Augmented resistive immersed surfaces valve model for the simulation of cardiac hemodynamics with isovolumetric phases

Abstract

In order to reduce the complexity of heart hemodynamics simulations, uncoupling approaches are often considered for the modeling of the immersed valves as an alternative to complex fluid-structure interaction (FSI) models. A possible shortcoming of these simplified approaches is the difficulty to correctly capture the pressure dynamics during the isovolumetric phases. In this work, we propose an enhanced resistive immersed surfaces (RIS) model of cardiac valves, which overcomes this issue. The benefits of the model are investigated and tested in blood flow simulations of the left heart where the physiological behavior of the intracavity pressure during the isovolumetric phases is recovered without using fully coupled fluid-structure models and without important alteration of the associated velocity field.

Keywords: heart hemodynamics; one-way uncoupling; resistive immersed surfaces.