Impact of turbulence modeling on the simulation of blood flow in aortic coarctation

Numerical simulations of pulsatile blood flow in an aortic coarctation require the use of turbulence modeling. This paper considers three models from the class of large eddy simulation (LES) models (Smagorinsky, Vreman, sigma-model) and one model from the class of variational multiscale models (residual-based) within a finite element framework. The influence of these models on the estimation of clinically relevant biomarkers used to assess the degree of severity of the pathological condition (pressure difference, secondary flow degree, normalized flow displacement, wall shear stress) is investigated in detail. The simulations show that most methods are consistent in terms of severity indicators such as pressure difference and stenotic velocity. Moreover, using second-order velocity finite elements, different turbulence models might lead to consider-ably different results concerning other clinically relevant quantities such as wall shear stresses. These differences may be attributed to differences in numerical dissipation introduced by the turbulence models.

Automated summary

Numerical simulations were conducted on pulsatile blood flow in an aortic coarctation, utilizing turbulence modeling. The study examined three large eddy simulation (LES) models (Smagorinsky, Vreman, sigma-model) and one variational multiscale model (residual-based) within a finite element framework. The impact of these models on clinically relevant biomarkers, such as pressure difference, secondary flow degree, normalized flow displacement, and wall shear stress, was thoroughly investigated. The results showed that while most methods provided consistent severity indicators, the choice of turbulence model could significantly affect other clinically relevant quantities such as wall shear stresses, due to differences in numerical dissipation introduced by the models.