Marshall Davey and Charles Puelz’s paper, which was co-authored by Simone Rossi, Margaret Anne Smith, and David Wells and entitled, Simulating cardiac fluid dynamics in the human heart, has been accepted for publication in PNAS Nexus. (An earlier preprint is available on arXiv.) The study was also performed in collaboration with Greg Sturgeon and Paul Segars at Duke, John Vavalle at UNC School of Medicine, and Charlie Peskin at NYU.

Predictive mathematical models of blood flow in the heart can simulate cardiac physiology, pathophysiology, and dysfunction along with responses to interventions. However, existing models of the heart are limited in their abilities to predict valve performance, use realistic descriptions of tissue biomechanics, or predict the response of the heart to changes in loading conditions. The integrative model of the human heart introduced in this paper aims to address these limitations. It generates pressure-volume loops, valvular pressure-flow relationships, and vortex formation times that are in excellent agreement with clinical and experimental data. The model also captures realistic changes in cardiac output in response to changing loading conditions. Critically, these physiologic aspects emerge inherently from mechanistic interactions within our comprehensive description of cardiac physiology.

This paper advances the state-of-the-art in modeling cardiac fluid-structure interaction.

Congratulations, Marshall, Charles, and the rest of the team!

The paper by group alumnus Aaron Barrett, along with Cole Gruninger, Flagellum pumping efficiency in shear-thinning viscoelastic fluids, has been accepted to appear in Journal of Fluid Mechanics. This study was also done in collaboration with Greg Forest at UNC and with Aaron Fogelson at the University of Utah.

Congratulations, Aaron and Cole!

Congratulations to Marshall Davey for successfully completing his PhD.

Marshall’s thesis is entitled, Construction of a Four-Chambered, Fluid-Structure Interaction Model of the Heart with Validation Studies of Physiologic Left Heart Performance. Marshall will be staying on in the group as a postdoctoral research associate to continue leading our cardiac fluid-structure interaction modeling efforts.

Congratulations, Marshall!

Cole Gruninger’s paper, with group alumni Aaron Barrett and Fuhui Fang and entitled, Benchmarking the immersed boundary method for viscoelastic flows, has been accepted to appear in Journal of Computational Physics. This study was also done in collaboration with Greg Forest at UNC.

Congratulations, Cole, Aaron, and Fuhui!

Keon Kim’s paper, which is with group alumnus Amneet Bhalla and is entitled, An immersed peridynamics model of fluid-structure interaction accounting for material damage and failure, has been accepted to appear in Journal of Computational Physics.

Congratulations, Keon and Amneet!

Congratulations to Jordan Brown and Keon Kim for successfully completing their PhDs.

Jordan’s thesis is on Modeling Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement in Patient-Specific Anatomies: Fluid-Structure Interaction Models Using the Immersed Finite Element-Difference Method. Jordan will be starting a position as a (tenure-track!) Assistant Professor of Mathematics at Belmont University.

Keon’s thesis is entitled, Immersed Peridynamics Method. Keon will be a Peter O’Donnell Jr. Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin’s Oden Institute.

Good luck, Jordan and Keon!

The paper by group alumnus Amin Kolahdouz, along with David Wells and Simone Rossi, A sharp interface Lagrangian-Eulerian method for flexible-body fluid-structure interaction, has been accepted to appear in Journal of Computational Physics. This work was also done with our FDA collaborators Kenny Aycock and Brent Craven.

Congratulations, Amin, David, and Simone!

The paper by group alumnus Aaron Barrett, along with Jordan Brown, A model of fluid–structure and biochemical interactions for applications to subclinical leaflet thrombosis, has been accepted to appear in International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering. This study was also done in collaboration with John Vavalle at UNC, Arash Kheradvar at UC Irvine, and Aaron Fogelson at the University of Utah.

Congratulations, Aaron and Jordan!

David Wells and Ben Vadala-Roth’s paper, which was also written with Mike Lee and is entitled, A nodal immersed finite element-finite difference method, has been accepted to appear in Journal of Computational Physics.

Congratulations, David, Ben, and Mike!

Jordan Brown’s paper, Patient–Specific Immersed Finite Element–Difference Model of Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, has been accepted to appear in Annals of Biomedical Engineering in their Special Issue on Modeling for Advancing Regulatory Science.

Congratulations, Jordan!