Implementing solid models for fluid-solid interaction solution of flow in intracranial aneurysms in solids4foam

Abstract

Aneurysms are abnormalities formed in some regions of the human vascular system and are characterized by dilated and thin regions of the arterial wall. One of the most common types occurs inside the brain arteries in the circle of Willis. These intracranial aneurysms are extremely dangerous, because in case of rupture they can cause subarachnoid hemorrhage, with consequent death or presence of permanent damage to the patient. Causes of aneurysms have been investigated for a long time, and researchers agree that hemodynamic effects play a key role in the formation, growth, and rupture of brain aneurysms. To completely solve this problems, it is necessary to account for the coupling between the blood flow and the movement of the artery and aneurysm wall tissue, a complex biochemical interaction. Furthermore, it is still very complex to mechanically model the aneurysm and artery tissues and to find robust numerical techniques to numerically solve this problem. We intend to use the solids4foam library of foam-extend to solve the aneurysm flow fluid-solid interaction problem, however more suitable models need to be implemented and validated in this library to be used in its framework. Therefore, we aim to collaborate with Prof. Dr. Philip Cardiff in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, University College Dublin, Ireland, which is one of the main developers of solids4foam and have an extensive repertoire of works in computational non-linear solid mechanics. (AU)