Three dimensional modeling of the cerebrospinal fluid dynamics and brain interactions in the aqueduct of sylvius.
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method is presented to investigate the flow of cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF) in the cerebral aqueduct. In addition to former approaches exhibiting a rigid geometry, we propose a model which includes a deformable membrane as the wall of this flow channel. An anatomical shape of the aqueduct was computed from magnetic resonance images (MRI) and the resulting meshing was immersed in a marker-and-cell (MAC) staggered grid for to take into account fluid-structure interactions. The time derivatives were digitized using the Crank-Nicolson scheme. The equation of continuity was modified by introducing an artificial compressibility and digitized by a finite difference scheme. Calculations were validated with the simulation of laminar flow in a rigid tube. Then, comparisons were made between simulations of a rigid aqueduct and a deformable one. We found that the deformability of the walls has a strong influence on the pressure drop for a given flow.
Fin
Loïc
L
Unité de Génie Biophysique et Médical, Université de Picardie, Cedex I, France. loic.fin@u-picardie.fr
Grebe
Reinhard
R
D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology; D002535:Cerebral Aqueduct / Q000502:physiology*; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid / Q000502:physiology*; D015170:Cerebrospinal Fluid Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D004548:Elasticity; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008566:Membranes / Q000502:physiology; D044085:Microfluidics / Q000379:methods*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009038:Motion; D011312:Pressure; D013314:Stress, Mechanical