Patient-specific isogeometric structural analysis of aortic valve closure

We investigate the use of Isogeometric Analysis for the model construction and simulation of aortic valve closure. We obtain converged results and compare with benchmark finite element analysis. We find that Isogeometric Analysis is capable of attaining the same accuracy with models consisting of two orders of magnitude fewer nodes than finite element models; analogous savings are observed also in terms of analysis time. Model construction and mesh refinement are likewise performed more efficiently with Isogeometric Analysis. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.