Mathematical and Numerical Modeling of Healthy and Unhealthy Cerebral Arterial Tissues

Over the last two decades, we have witnessed an increasing application of mathematical models and numerical simulations for the study of the cardiovascular system. Indeed, both tools provide an important contribution to the analysis of the functioning of the different components of the cardiovascular system (i.e. heart, vessels and blood) and of their interactions either in physiological and pathological conditions. For this reason, reliable constitutive models for the cardiac, arterial and venous tissues as well as for the blood are an essential prerequisite for a number of different objectives that range from the improved diagnostic to the study of the onset and development of cardiovascular diseases (e.g atherosclerosis or aneurysms). This work focuses on the mathematical and numerical modeling of healthy and unhealthy cerebral arterial tissue. In particular, it presents a detailed analysis of different constitutive models for the arterial tissue by means of finite element numerical simulations of arterial wall mechanics and fluid-structure interaction problems occurring in hemodynamics. Hyperelastic isotropic and anisotropic constitutive laws are considered for the description of the passive mechanical behavior of the vessels. An anisotropic multi-mechanism model, specifically proposed for the cerebral arterial tissue, for which the activation of the collagen fibers occurs at finite strains is employed. Firstly, the constitutive laws are numerically validated by considering numerical simulations of static inflation tests on a cylindrical geometry representing a specimen of anterior cerebral artery. With this regard, the material parameters for the constitutive law are obtained from the data fitting of experimental measurements obtained on the same vessel. The constitutive models are critically discussed according to their capability of describing the physiogical highly nonlinear behavior of arteries and on other numerical aspects related to the computational simulation of arterial wall mechanics. Afterwards, simulations of the blood flow and vessel wall interactions are carried out on idealized blood vessels in order to analyze the influence of the modeling choice for the arterial wall on hemodynamic and mechanical quantities that are commonly considered as indicators of physiological or pathological conditions of arteries. We also consider the numerical simulations of unhealthy cerebral arterial tissues by taking into account the mechanical weakening of the vessel wall that occurs during early development stages of cerebral aneurysms by means of static inflation and FSI simulations. We employ both isotropic and anisotropic models study the effects of the mechanical degradation on hemodynamic and mechanical quantities of interest. The FSI simulations are carried out both on idealized geometries of blood vessels and on domains representing idealized and anatomically realistic cerebral aneurysms.