The purpose of the Biomedical Flows and Structures project is to apply the numerical methods and software developed in the Computational Middleware and Robust Flow Solvers projects in a few selected, important applications that has the potential for making an impact on clinical medicine or on fundamental medical understanding. Three applications are in focus.
The first concerns the blood flow in the circle of Willis and its relation to the development and rupture of aneurysms. This project is motivated by the fact that 1-6% of the general population develop aneurysms during a lifetime, and when these aneurysms rupture they often cause fatal strokes. Although the risk for rupture in general is low, usually estimated to less than 1% annually, it is hard to assess risk in a patient-specific manner. Our hope is to determine the potential for rupture more precisely by using computational fluid dynamics. This work is in close collaboration with Prof. Tor Ingebrigtsen and Jørgen Isaksen at the University Hospital of Northern Norway in Tromsø.
The second application is the flow of the water-like cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the cranio-cervical region and its association with the development of cysts within the spinal coord (syringomelia). Such cysts are often found in patients with the Chiari I malformation, which is characterized by a downward displacement of the brain such that the CSF flow is obstructed. Medical researchers believe that the resulting abnormal flow pattern may be a cause for syringomelia. By using flow simulations we are computing the flow characteristics and the stress that acts on the spinal cord, in idealized anatomies, to investigate the effect of flow obstructions. This work is in close collaboration with Prof. Victor Haughton at the medical faculty, University of Wisconsin (Madison, USA).
The third application concerns modeling the behavior of the mitral valve in the heart. Understanding the mechanics of the mitral valve and its coupling to the blood flow is important for improving valve replacements. So far, this work, carried out at the CBC node at NTNU, has mainly concentrated on modeling the (anisotropic) tissue of the mitral valve and its movement due to prescribed forces. Extensions to fluid-structure simulations of the valve's interaction with the flow of blood are now in focus. This is a very challenging problem requiring deep insight in biomechanics and numerical methods. This research is conducted in collaboration with Prof. Jan Vierendeels at Gent University in Belgium.
A forth application aiming at modeling inhalation of drugs or bacteria in the human airways is expected to be started later as a result of our cooperation with FFI and the University of Cyprus.
