Fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction simulation of the aortic and mitral valves in a realistic 3D left ventricle model

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Wenbin Mao, Georgia Institute of Technology; Andres Caballero, Georgia Institute of Technology; Raymond Mckay, The Hartford Hospital, Connecticut; Charles Primiano, The Hartford Hospital, Connecticut; Wei Sun, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2017-09-08
• Publisher: Public Library Science
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2017 Mao et al.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0184729
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: PLoS One
• Volume: 12
• Issue: 9
• Start Page: e0184729
• End Page: e0184729
• Grant/Funding Information: WM is in part supported by an American Heart Association Post-doctoral Fellowship 15POST25910002; This work was supported in part by the NIH HL104080 and HL127570 grants; AC is in part supported by a Fulbright-Colciencias fellowship; The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Blood flow; Multidisciplinary Sciences; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Behavior; Chordal force distribution; Computational analysis; Heart; Numerical simulation; Saddle-shaped anulus; Vitro-dynamic strain; Smoothed particle hydrodynamics; Hemodynamics
• Research Categories: Computer Science; Engineering, Biomedical; Physics, Elementary Particles and High Energy; Biology, Biostatistics

Abstract

In this study, we present a fully-coupled fluid-structure interaction (FSI) framework that combines smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) and nonlinear finite element (FE) method to investigate the coupled aortic and mitral valves structural response and the bulk intraventricular hemodynamics in a realistic left ventricle (LV) model during the entire cardiac cycle. The FSI model incorporates valve structures that consider native asymmetric leaflet geometries, anisotropic hyperelastic material models and human material properties. Comparison of FSI results with subject-specific echocardiography data demonstrates that the SPH-FE approach is able to quantitatively predict the opening and closing times of the valves, the mitral leaflet opening and closing angles, and the large-scale intraventricular flow phenomena with a reasonable agreement. Moreover, comparison of FSI results with a LV model without valves reveals substantial differences in the flow field. Peak systolic velocities obtained from the FSI model and the LV model without valves are 2.56 m/s and 1.16 m/s, respectively, compared to the Doppler echo data of 2.17 m/s. The proposed SPH-FE FSI framework represents a further step towards modeling patient-specific coupled LV-valve dynamics, and has the potential to improve our understanding of cardiovascular physiology and to support professionals in clinical decision-making.