Segmentation and Mesh Generation for Patient-Specific Flow Modelling in Carotid Arteries
Xianghua Xie · 2012
Segmentation and mesh generation are two important stages in patient-specific computational modelling. In this paper, we present our approach to these two problems in modelling blood flow haemodynamics in human carotid arteries in order to improve the understanding of the impact of flow dynamics to carotid disease formation and progression. The segmentation of carotid arteries in CT scans is carried out using a deformable model based on a geometrical potential force that is derived from generalising image gradient vector interactions across the image domain. It is shown to be robust towards image noise interference, weak edge, and arbitrary initialisations. The mesh generation involves surface meshing and volume meshing. The surface meshes are computed from the implicit function obtained from the deformable modelling. The near-wall volumetric mesh is required in order to resolve the viscous boundary layer in flow studies. A flow study on severe stenosis is provided which involves segmenting the carotid geometries, generating valid surface and volume meshes, and a flow solver.