An edge-based/node-based selective smoothed finite element method using tetrahedrons for cardiovascular tissues

This paper presents a three-dimensional selective smoothed finite element method with edge-based and node-based strain smoothing techniques (3D-ES/NS-FEM) for nonlinear anisotropic large deformation analyses of nearly incompressible cardiovascular tissues. 3D-ES/NS-FEM owns several superior advantages, such as the robustness against the element distortions and superior computational efficiency, etc. To simulate the large deformation experienced by cardiovascular tissues, the static and explicit dynamic 3D-ES/NS-FEMs are derived correspondingly. Performance contest results show that 3D-ES/NS-FEM-T4 outperforms the standard FEM and other S-FEMs. Furthermore, this 3D-ES/NS-FEM-T4 is applied to analyze intact common carotid artery undergo mean blood pressure and passive inflation of anatomical rabbit bi-ventricles. The results are validated with the reference solutions, and also demonstrate that present 3D-ES/NS-FEM-T4 is a powerful and efficient numerical tool to simulate the large deformation of anisotropic tissues in cardiovascular systems. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.