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Sensitivity to outflow boundary conditions and level of geometry description for a cerebral aneurysm
Author(s) -
Ramalho S.,
Moura A.,
Gambaruto A.M.,
Sequeira A.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal for numerical methods in biomedical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.741
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 2040-7947
pISSN - 2040-7939
DOI - 10.1002/cnm.2461
Subject(s) - outflow , geometry , boundary (topology) , sensitivity (control systems) , boundary value problem , mathematics , bounding overwatch , flow (mathematics) , mathematical analysis , physics , computer science , engineering , artificial intelligence , electronic engineering , meteorology
SUMMARY Mathematical models, namely the flow boundary conditions, as well as the detail of the bounding geometry, can highly influence the computed flow field. In this work, an anatomically realistic portion of cerebral vasculature with a saccular aneurysm, and its geometric idealisation, are considered. The importance of the geometric description, namely including the side branches or modelling them as holes in the main vessel, is studied. Several approaches to prescribe the outflow boundary conditions at the side branches are analysed, including the traction‐free condition, zero velocity (hence neglecting the side‐branch), and the coupling with simple zero‐dimensional and one‐dimensional models. Results of the effects of outflow boundary modelling choice on computed haemodynamic parameters are used to identify appropriateness of the models based on the physical interpretation. Estimated range of error‐bars associated to outflow boundary model choice and the level of geometric details are presented for patient‐specific computational haemodynamics, and can serve as invitation for future studies. The zero‐dimensional and one‐dimensional models are shown to provide good representations of the side branches in the case of the clipped geometry. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.