Towards an integrated platform for hemodynamics investigation in thoracic aorta: UQ in simulations and experiments

Techniques based on Computational Fluid Dynamics have been extensively used in the last few years to investigate hemodynamics inside arteries. Our aim is to develop an efficient platform in which in-vivo measurements are integrated into hemodynamic simulations to obtain detailed and accurate predictions on a patient-specific level. We consider real geometries of thoracic aorta and focus on the use of clinical information to impose accurate boundary conditions at the inlet/outlets of the computational model. 

We focus herein on the inlet boundary condition. Stochastic analyses are performed to evaluate how uncertainties in the flow rate waveform and in the distribution in space of the inlet velocity affect the main hemodynamic indicators in simulations and experiments, by considering both healthy and pathologic geometries. We use the open-source software SimVascular to carry out the simulations, whereas for the experiments we have developed a fully controlled and sensorized circulatory mock loop able to reproduce the fluid dynamic physiological conditions for 3D-printed aortic models.  Among the selected input parameters, the stroke volume and the cardiac cycle period have the highest influence. A general increase of wall shear stresses is found with increasing the stroke volume.