Speeding Up Fluid-Structure Interaction Simulation of the Blood Flow in a Flexible Artery Using Sub-Cycling: Stability and Accuracy

In the cardiovascular system, the distensibility of the blood vessels is the driving mechanism of wave propagation. As the blood flow interacts mechanically with the flexible vessel walls, this phenomenon gives rise to complex fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems. Several studies comparing rigid wall with FSI simulations in settings with large deformations demonstrate the importance of including the flexible wall modeling, in particular with respect to the simulation of wall shear stress. As both the equations governing the flow and the arterial deformation (and their interaction) need to be solved, FSI simulations are characterized by a high computational cost. To make them applicable to a broader range of cardiovascular problems, efforts to reduce the calculation time (such as the use of so-called ‘sub-cycling’) should be made.