A Formulation for Fluid–Structure Interactions in febio Using Mixture Theory

Abstract

Many physiological systems involve strong interactions between fluids and solids, posing a significant challenge when modeling biomechanics. The objective of this study was to implement a fluid–structure interaction (FSI) solver in the free, open-source finite element code FEBio, that combined the existing solid mechanics and rigid body dynamics solver with a recently developed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. A novel Galerkin-based finite element FSI formulation was introduced based on mixture theory, where the FSI domain was described as a mixture of fluid and solid constituents that have distinct motions. The mesh was defined on the solid domain, specialized to have zero mass, negligible stiffness, and zero frictional interactions with the fluid, whereas the fluid was modeled as isothermal and compressible. The mixture framework provided the foundation for evaluating material time derivatives in a material frame for the solid and in a spatial frame for the fluid. Similar to our recently reported CFD solver, our FSI formulation did not require stabilization methods to achieve good convergence, producing a compact set of equations and code implementation. The code was successfully verified against benchmark problems from the FSI literature and an analytical solution for squeeze-film lubrication. It was validated against experimental measurements of the flow rate in a peristaltic pump and illustrated using non-Newtonian blood flow through a bifurcated carotid artery with a thick arterial wall. The successful formulation and implementation of this FSI solver enhance the multiphysics modeling capabilities in febio relevant to the biomechanics and biophysics communities.