Recent developments in multiphysics computational models of physiological flows

Abstract

A mini-symposium on computational modeling of fluid-structure interactions and other multiphysics in physiological flows was held at the 11th World Congress on Computational Mechanics in July 2014 in Barcelona, Spain. This special issue of Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics contains papers from among the participants of the mini-symposium. The present paper provides an overview of the mini-symposium and the special issue. 1 Overview of the mini-symposium Capabilities for numerical simulations of physiological flows have evolved tremendously in the last decade. This evolution is primarily due to notable advances in computational architecture, numerical methodologies, modeling of the rheology and elastic characteristics of biological materials, and pathways from medical imaging to flow computation. Within the advancement of numerical methodologies, there are two fronts on which developments have been particularly notable. One of these fronts involves strategies for the immersion of complex geometries in simple static grids. These so-called immersed boundary methods, which were first introduced in the 1970s but have seen a resurgence in the last decade, have gone far to address the challenges of simulation with complex moving boundaries, which are particularly troublesome in physiology. On the other front, researchers are devising new methods for coupling the fluid dynamics with other relevant physics: the structural dynamics of soft tissues, the electrophysiology of the heart muscles, and the biochemistry of fluid components, such as thrombi or aerosol particulates. The developments on these fronts have opened a wide new world for computational mechanics. Many of these advances have been fueled by productive partnerships that have emerged between engineers, physicians, and biomedical researchers, to the point that simulations are even starting to provide guidance on patient-specific diagnosis and surgical planning. The authors of this introductory paper organized a mini-symposium on the topic of multiphysical modeling of physiological flows at the 11th World Congress on Computational Mechanics, held in Barcelona in July 2014, in which the results of several such partnerships were presented over the course of two sessions. The mini-symposium brought together several researchers who are making novel contributions to the computation of flows and associated multiphysics problems in a variety of physiological contexts. The twofold objective of the mini-symposium was to highlight the state of the art in modeling of physiological flows and to provide