Methodology of generation of CFD meshes and 4D shape reconstruction of coronary arteries from patient-specific dynamic CT.

Due to the difficulties in retrieving both the time-dependent shapes of the vessels and the generation of numerical meshes for such cases, most of the simulations of blood flow in the cardiac arteries use static geometry. The article describes a methodology for generating a sequence of time-dependent 3D shapes based on images of different resolutions and qualities acquired from ECG-gated coronary artery CT angiography. The precision of the shape restoration method has been validated using an independent technique. The original proposed approach also generates for each of the retrieved vessel shapes a numerical mesh of the same topology (connectivity matrix), greatly simplifying the CFD blood flow simulations. This feature is of significant importance in practical CFD simulations, as it gives the possibility of using the mesh-morphing utility, minimizing the computation time and the need of interpolation between boundary meshes at subsequent time instants. The developed technique can be applied to generate numerical meshes in arteries and other organs whose shapes change over time. It is applicable to medical images produced by other than angio-CT modalities.

Multiscale model for blood flow after a bileaflet artificial aortic valve implantation.

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality in the world, mainly due to atherosclerosis and its consequences. The article presents the numerical model of the blood flow through artificial aortic valve. The overset mesh approach was applied to simulate the valve leaflets motion and to realize the moving mesh, in the aortic arch and the main branches of cardiovascular system. To capture the cardiac system's response and the effect of vessel compliance on the outlet pressure, the lumped parameter model has been also included within the solution procedure. Three different turbulence modeling approaches were used and compared - the laminar, k-ϵ and k-ω model. The simulation results were also compared with the model excluding the moving valve geometry and the importance of the lumped parameter model for the outlet boundary condition was analyzed. Proposed numerical model and protocol was found as suitable for performing the virtual operations on the real patient vasculature geometry. The time-efficient turbulence model and overall solving procedure allows to support the clinicians in making decisions about the patient treatment and to predict the results of the future surgery.

Application of the Numerical Techniques for Modelling Fluidization Process Within Industrial Scale Boilers.

The numerical simulation of the large scale industrial circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boilers, working under air- and oxy-fuel combustion are presented in this paper. Moreover, two-dimensional experimental rig used for numerical model validation is described. For three-dimensional numerical simulations two industrial compact CFB boilers were selected installed in Polish Power Plants. Numerical simulations were carried out using three-dimensional model where the dense particulate transport phenomenon was simultaneously modelled with combustion process. The fluidization process was modelled using the hybrid Euler-Lagrange approach. Within the paper, readers can find information about used computational technique and a number of reference to specific work. The impact of radiative heat transfer on predicted temperature profile within the CFB boiler was investigated in presented work. Moreover, the novel model for retrieving radiative properties of gases under oxy-fuel combustion process was used. The evaluated temperature and pressure profiles during numerical simulations were compared against measured data collected during boiler air-fuel operation. Collected data was also used for validating numerical model of the oxy-fuel combustion model. Stability of the model and its sensitivity on changes of composition of the oxidizer were studied. This simulations were evaluated to check the response of the numerical model on changing the combustion conditions from air- to oxy-fuel combustion process. The comparison of the pressure and temperature profiles for all considered cases gave comparable trends in contrary to measured data.