Due: Tuesday May 31st
The Continuity Biomechanics tutorial #7 describes the passive inflation of a prolate spheroidal finite element model of the left ventricle that includes a realistic distribution of muscle fiber orientations. The tutorial documents the geometry, fiber distribution, constitutive law, material parameters and boundary conditions. It also supplies sample outputs of stress and strain results in Excel-compatible spreadsheets. You do not have install or run Continuity to complete this exercise though you are welcome to try if you wish.
Plot selected results from the output files that illustrate informative features of the analysis and results. Label your plots as fully and accurately as possible. Include a discussion of the results. Organize your results as follows:
- Those results that are consistent with expectations based on fundamentals of mechanics. In each case, explain why basic mechanics considerations or classical solutions explained the result.
- Those results that may be less intuitive, but provide informative insights into the physiology or biomechanics of ventricular filling. Discuss how the result may be relevant to ventricular physiology.
- Those results that are unexpected or unrealistic and look as though they may be inaccuracies associated with the numerical approximations used in the model analysis. Discuss what causes these discrepancies or how they could be minimized.