EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Muscle and Blood: Cardiac Mechanics by the Immersed Boundary Method
Speaker: Professor Charles Peskin
Speaker Info: Courant Institute (New York University)
Brief Description:
Special Note: Special Time! Joint with ESAM Colloquium
Abstract:

Computer simulation of the beating human heart requires the simultaneous solution of equations of motion that couple together the fluid mechanics of the blood, the elasticity of the flexible heart valve leaflets, and the active, time-dependent elasticity of the muscular heart walls. The immersed boundary (IB) method was created to solve this problem. It regards the cardiac tissue as a part of the fluid in which additional, elastic forces are applied. These forces are generated by a collection of immersed elastic fibers that model the muscle fibers of the heart walls and the collagen fibers that give the heartvalve leaflets their strength. Results will be shown as a computer animation of the beating heart, and also as still figures that show the instantaneous flow pattern of blood in greater detail. Not included in these simulations is the electrical activity of the heart that coordinates and controls the heartbeat, but we shall discuss how the IB framework can be generalized to solve the electrical problem, too.

References (available at http://www.math.nyu.edu/faculty/peskin):

McQueen DM and Peskin CS: Heart simulation by an Immersed Boundary Method with formal second-order accuracy and reduced numerical viscosity. In: Mechanics for a New Millennium, Proceedings of the International Conference on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM) 2000, (H. Aref and J.W. Phillips, eds.) Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001

Peskin CS: The immersed boundary method. Acta Numerica 11:479-517, 2002

(peskin@cims.nyu.edu)