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Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of the Human Pulmonary Arteries with Experimental Validation

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Abstract

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a chronic progressive disease characterized by elevated pulmonary arterial pressure, caused by an increase in pulmonary arterial impedance. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be used to identify metrics representative of the stage of PH disease. However, experimental validation of CFD models is often not pursued due to the geometric complexity of the model or uncertainties in the reproduction of the required flow conditions. The goal of this work is to validate experimentally a CFD model of a pulmonary artery phantom using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. Rapid prototyping was used for the construction of the patient-specific pulmonary geometry, derived from chest computed tomography angiography images. CFD simulations were performed with the pulmonary model with a Reynolds number matching those of the experiments. Flow rates, the velocity field, and shear stress distributions obtained with the CFD simulations were compared to their counterparts from the PIV flow visualization experiments. Computationally predicted flow rates were within 1% of the experimental measurements for three of the four branches of the CFD model. The mean velocities in four transversal planes of study were within 5.9 to 13.1% of the experimental mean velocities. Shear stresses were qualitatively similar between the two methods with some discrepancies in the regions of high velocity gradients. The fluid flow differences between the CFD model and the PIV phantom are attributed to experimental inaccuracies and the relative compliance of the phantom. This comparative analysis yielded valuable information on the accuracy of CFD predicted hemodynamics in pulmonary circulation models.

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Acknowledgments

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose and would like to acknowledge research funding from American Heart Association award 14GRNT19020017 and National Institutes of Health award R01HL121293. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the American Heart Association or the National Institutes of Health. The use of ANSYS Fluent is gratefully acknowledged through an educational licensing agreement with Ansys Inc.

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  1. Alifer D. Bordones and Matthew Leroux are the joint first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UTSA/UTHSA Joint Graduate Program in Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

    Alifer D. Bordones, Matthew Leroux & Ender A. Finol

  2. Department of Bioengineering, Anschutz Medical Campus, University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, CO, USA

    Vitaly O. Kheyfets

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chen Kung University, Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Yu-An Wu & Chia-Yuan Chen

  4. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, Room EB 3.04.08, San Antonio, TX, 78249, USA

    Ender A. Finol

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  1. Alifer D. Bordones
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Correspondence to Ender A. Finol.

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Associate Editor Umberto Morbiducci oversaw the review of this article.

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Bordones, A.D., Leroux, M., Kheyfets, V.O. et al. Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of the Human Pulmonary Arteries with Experimental Validation. Ann Biomed Eng 46, 1309–1324 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-018-2047-1

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