Simulation of active cardiac electromechanical dynamics

Abstract

While finite element methods have been extensively used for computational cardiology, the complicated and computationally expensive meshing procedures largely increase the difficulties of improving numerical accuracy. Furthermore, as the complexity of the element structure increases with the order of polynomial can be handled, the finite element procedures are either simple but numerically inaccurate or accurate but labor intensive. In view of these problems, we adopt the meshfree methods for computational cardiology. Using the meshfree methods, the heart is represented by a set of nodes distributed in the myocardium without any mesh, thus spatial refinements only involve distribution of extra nodes to the area of interest. Furthermore, as the order of polynomial is not limited by elements, it can be increased with relatively ease. These are desirable features as they provide the flexibility for improving numerical accuracies. In this paper, the simulation of the cardiac electromechanical dynamics using the meshfree methods will be introduced. Experiments have been done on a cubical object to provide an insight into the electromechanical dynamics, and also on a canine heart model to show the physiological plausibility of the simulation. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.