Fluid–structure interaction simulation of aortic blood flow by ventricular beating: a preliminary model for blunt aortic injuries in vehicle crashes

Abstract

Blunt aortic injuries are common and severe in motor vehicle crash accidents (MVCAs), but the injury mechanisms, which can be categorised as kinematics and hydrodynamics aspects, remain to be uncertain. In this study, a finite element model was developed for the aorta-heart system with fluid–structure interaction methods, aimed to study both kinds of mechanisms simultaneously. The aortic blood flow was generated by simulating left ventricle contraction. This model was further integrated with a human body model to reconstruct a real car crash case. The aorta-heart model was validated against ventricular volume, blood pressure, velocity, flow rate and wall shear stress. The integrated model predicted aorta isthmus laceration and other injuries consistent with the case injury reports. The cardiac output during the accident was more intense than the physiological output, proving the ability of current simulation approach to capture the blood flow modification by the thoracic compressive loadings during accidents.

Keywords:

• Aortic injury
• left ventricle contraction
• fluid–structure interaction
• fluid dynamics
• motor vehicle crash accidents

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.