Numerical Simulations of the Hydrodynamics of the Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm (AAA) Using a Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Code with Deformable Wall Preliminary Results

Abstract

We present some preliminary results of the numerical simulations of the hydrodynamic characteristics of an abdominal aorta aneurysm (AAA) patient specific test case. Images of the AAA lumen have been acquired in 10 discrete time-steps through a stabilized cardiac cycle by electrocardiogram-gated computer tomography angiography, and are used to approximate the in vivo, time dependent kinematic fields of the (internal) arterial wall. The flow field is simulated by a Smoothed Particle SPH numerical model, where the kinematics of the boundary of the computational domain (the internal aortic vessel) is the one computed by the above procedure. The outputs of the SPH model, i.e., pressure and flow field characteristics, are used to compute the stress strain tensor acting over the internal walls of the aorta. The two coupled approaches, i.e., 1) the procedure applied for the kinematics of the internal walls of the aorta and 2) the fluido-dynamic numerical model could constitute a new and fast tool to predict and prevent aneurysm rupture risk.