Computational fluid dynamics of blood flow and associated transport phenomena

The research is focused on mathematical modelling and numerical analysis of fluid and oxygen/drug
transport phenomena in the cardiovascular system at a range of scales. Non-invasive medical imaging
techniques make it possible to reconstruct 3D computational models of individual patients. Such 3D
models can be subsequently used for numerical simulations of the blood flow and obtain accurate
representations, giving indication of the health state of the patient for numerous diseases and conditions.
While 3D modelling and simulations provides accurate representations, the computational time required is
often prohibitively large for practical clinical interest. The simulation and analysis time can be cut back by
considering reduced order models. An example of this is to represent an artery only by its centreline,
hence reducing the complex cardiovascular system to a branching network of one-dimensional curves. By
reducing the analysis time required, such reduced models may be developed for clinical scenarios.
In this work we aim to run simulation of blood flow in the human body, and importantly the transport of
oxygen, drugs or other solutes. Both three-dimensional and one-dimensional modelling techniques will be
employed, and the coronary and cerebral circulation will be the focus of the project. One of the goals is to
investigate how the brain tissue is regionally perfused by oxygen, and many other challenging cases may
be studied. One of the aims is to bring the research, numerical methods and computational tools, closer to
being an option in practical clinical and medical care.