Shape Optimization of hemolysis for shear thinning flows in moving domains

TL;DR

This paper studies the shape optimization of blood flows in moving domains, focusing on shear-thinning fluids, and proves the existence of shapes minimizing hemolysis by extending previous mathematical results.

Contribution

It extends the mathematical analysis of blood flow models to a broader range of rheological exponents and establishes the existence of optimal shapes minimizing hemolysis.

Findings

Proved convergence of blood flow solutions in moving domains for shear-thinning fluids.

Extended shape continuity results to a wider rheological exponent range.

Established existence of minimal shapes for hemolysis reduction.

Abstract

We consider the $3$D problem of shape optimization of blood flows in moving domains. Such a geometry is adopted to take into account the modeling of rotating systems and blood pumps for instance. The blood flow is described by generalized Navier-Stokes equations, in the particular case of shear-thinning flows. For a sequence of converging moving domains, we show that a sequence of associated solutions to blood equations converges to a solution of the problem written on the limit moving domain. Thus, we extended the result given in (Soko\l{}owski, Stebel, 2014, in \textit{Evol. Eq. Control Theory}) for $q \geq 11/5$, to the range $6/5< q < 11/5$, where $q$ is the exponent of the rheological law. This shape continuity property allows us to show the existence of minimal shapes for a class of functionals depending on the blood velocity field and its gradient. This allows to consider in particular the problem of hemolysis minimization in blood flows, namely the minimization of red blood cells damage.