Vascular flow simulations using SimVascular and OpenFOAM

Applications of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease have entered the research domain in recent years, due to their ability to provide valuable patient-specific information without risks associated with highly invasive procedures. SimVascular [1] [2] is an open-source software which allows streamlined processing and CFD blood flow analysis of medical imaging data. OpenFOAM [3] is a proven open-source software which allows for versatile modeling of various fluid dynamics phenomena. In this study, both SimVascular and OpenFOAM simulations are set up with identical computational mesh, similar numerical schemes, boundary conditions, and material properties, to model blood flow in the coronary artery of a 10 year old patient with Coarctation of the Aorta (CoA) who underwent end-to-side anastomosis. Difference in the flow fields such as flow rate, pressure, vorticity, and wall shear stress between SimVascular and OpenFOAM are analyzed. Similar results are obtained in both simulations up to a certain model time, before the results become drastically different. Both the similarities and differences are documented and discussed.