A reduced unified continuum formulation for vascular fluid-structure interaction

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified, higher-order accurate, and robust monolithic fluid-structure interaction formulation for vascular applications, enabling efficient block preconditioning and verified against theoretical models.

Contribution

It presents a reduced, unified continuum FSI formulation with second-order temporal accuracy and a novel block preconditioning approach for efficient solution of vascular FSI problems.

Findings

Achieved second-order temporal accuracy for pressure and velocity.

Developed a robust three-level nested block preconditioner.

Verified the formulation against Womersley's theory.

Abstract

We recently derived the unified continuum and variational multiscale formulation for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) using the Gibbs free energy. Restricting our attention to vascular FSI, we now reduce this arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) formulation by adopting three assumptions for the vascular wall. The resulting reduced unified continuum formulation achieves monolithic FSI coupling in the Eulerian frame through a simple modification of the fluid boundary integral. While ostensibly similar to the semi-discrete formulation of the coupled momentum method, its underlying derivation does not rely on an assumption of a fictitious body force in the elastodynamics sub-problem and therefore represents a direct simplification of the ALE method. Uniform temporal discretization is performed via the generalized-$\alpha$ scheme. In contrast to the predominant approach yielding only first-order accuracy for pressure, we collocate both pressure and velocity at the intermediate time step to achieve uniform second-order temporal accuracy. In conjunction with quadratic tetrahedral elements, our methodology offers higher-order temporal and spatial accuracy for quantities of clinical interest. Furthermore, without loss of consistency, a segregated predictor multi-corrector algorithm is developed to preserve the same block structure as for the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in the implicit solver's associated linear system. Block preconditioning of a monolithically coupled FSI system is therefore made possible for the first time. Compared to alternative preconditioners, our three-level nested block preconditioner, which improves representation of the Schur complement, demonstrates robust performance over a wide range of physical parameters. We present verification against Womersley's deformable wall theory and additionally develop practical modeling techniques for clinical applications.