Simulation of the biomechanics of the heart in a high performance computing environment

心脏生物力学特性的异常在高血压和心力衰竭的情况下很常见。传统上，评价心脏功能的指标是心脏的机械收缩效率(EF)，即射血分数。然而，最近的临床研究表明，EF可能不是诊断心脏肥厚(如室壁厚度增加)所致心脏受损的有效生物标志物，心肌肥厚提供了心肌对室壁应力正常化的代偿反应。因此，有明显生物力学异常的心脏病可能不能通过EF降低有效地反映出来。该项目的主要目标是对人类心脏进行先进的计算机模拟，从而确定高血压心脏病条件下心肌应力、应变和能量之间的生物物理关系。模拟数据将与临床成像数据的收缩参数的详细分析进行比较和验证。学生将不仅学习如何开发和实施具有机电耦合的心脏计算机模型，还将在高性能的科学计算和可视化环境中发展编程技能，并解释和分析临床成像数据。具体地说，我们设想使用OpenFOAM和ParaFEM的组合来分别进行流体和结构分析。这项工作有助于全球努力开发一种从生物物理学角度详细描述心脏的计算机模型。

Abnormalities of biomechanical properties of the heart are common in hypertension and heart failure conditions. Traditionally the functions of the heart are evaluated by its mechanical contraction efficiency (EF), i.e., the ejection fraction. However, recent clinical studies have shown that EF may not be an effective biomarker for diagnosing impaired hearts due to hypertrophied heart (e.g., increased wall thickness) that provides a compensatory response of the myocardium to normalize wall stresses. Therefore, heart diseases with apparent biomechanical abnormalities may not be effectively reflected by a reduced EF. The main objectives of this project are to perform advanced computer simulations of the human heart, from which the biophysical relationship between myocardial stress, strain and energetics in hypertensive cardiac disease conditions will be determined. Simulation data will be compared to and validated against detailed analysis of the contractile parameters of clinical imaging data. The student will learn not only how to develop and implement computer models of the heart with electrical-mechanical coupling, but also develop programming skills in high performance scientific computing and visualization environments, and interpret and analyse clinical imaging data. Specifically we envisage using a combination of OpenFOAM and ParaFEM for fluid and structural analysis respectively. This work contributes to a global effort in developing a biophysically detailed computer model of the heart.