Patient-specific vascular NURBS modeling for isogeometric analysis of blood flow

• Published in: Computer methods in applied mechanics and engineering Vol. 196; no. 29; pp. 2943 - 2959
• Main Authors: Zhang, Yongjie, Bazilevs, Yuri, Goswami, Samrat, Bajaj, Chandrajit L., Hughes, Thomas J.R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15-05-2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Biological and medical sciences; Blood flow; Computer science; control theory; systems; Exact sciences and technology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hemodynamics. Rheology; Hexahedral mesh; Isogeometric analysis; NURBS; Patient-specific vascular models; Pattern recognition. Digital image processing. Computational geometry; Skeleton-based sweeping; Vertebrates: cardiovascular system; Isogeometric analysis; Patient-specific vascular models; Hexahedral mesh; Skeleton-based sweeping; NURBS; Blood flow; Human; Branching; Voronoï diagram; Filtering; Segmentation; Image processing; Modeling; Geometrical model; Polyhedron; Non uniform rational B spline; Filter; Imaging; Classification; Data models; Skeleton; Circulatory system; Hemodynamics; Contrast media
• ISSN: 0045-7825; 1879-2138
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cma.2007.02.009

We describe an approach to construct hexahedral solid NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) meshes for patient-specific vascular geometric models from imaging data for use in isogeometric analysis. First, image processing techniques, such as contrast enhancement, filtering, classification, and segmentation, are used to improve the quality of the input imaging data. Then, luminal surfaces are extracted by isocontouring the preprocessed data, followed by the extraction of vascular skeleton via Voronoi and Delaunay diagrams. Next, the skeleton-based sweeping method is used to construct hexahedral control meshes. Templates are designed for various branching configurations to decompose the geometry into mapped meshable patches. Each patch is then meshed using one-to-one sweeping techniques, and boundary vertices are projected to the luminal surface. Finally, hexahedral solid NURBS are constructed and used in isogeometric analysis of blood flow. Piecewise linear hexahedral meshes can also be obtained using this approach. Examples of patient-specific arterial models are presented.