Multiscale coupling of compliant and rigid walls blood flow models

Numerical methods based on geometrical multiscale models of blood flows solve for averaged flow statistics on a network of vessels while providing more detailed information about fluid dynamics in a specific region of interest. In such an approach, a 3D model based on the Navier–Stokes equations posed in a domain with rigid walls is often used to describe blood flow dynamics in the refined region. While ignoring elasticity effects in 3D models is plausible in certain applications and saves computational time significantly, coupling such models with 1D flow models may result in non‐physiological phenomena in the computed solutions. Thus, the immediate coupling conditions based on continuity of normal stresses, flow rate, pressure, or a combination of thereof do not account for the inconsistency between elasticity effects in the 1D model and the non‐compliance of the 3D model. In this paper, we introduce and study an auxiliary absorbing 0D model, which is placed at the interface between 1D and 3D models. A virtual device mimics the effect of the 3D model compliance and hence reduces pressure wave reflection and instabilities caused by the inconsistency. The absorbing model is developed from basic mechanical principles. As a result, parameters of the 0D model can be designed based on hemodynamic data. We analyze the stability of the geometrical multiscale model and perform several numerical experiments to assess its computational efficiency. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.