Best Practices in Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Cerebral Aneurysms using ANSYS CFX

Abstract

Today many researchers are looking toward computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as a tool that can help doctors understand and predict the severity of aneurysms, but there has yet to be any conclusive proof of the accuracy or the ease of implementation of this CFD analysis. To help solve this issue, CFD simulations were conducted to compare these setup practices in order to find the most accurate and computationally efficient setup. These simulation comparisons were applied over two CFD group challenges from the CFD community whose goal was not only to assess modeling accuracy, but the analysis of clinical use and the hemodynamics of rupture as well. Methodology compared included mesh style and refinement, timestep comparison, steady and unsteady flow comparison as well as flow rate amplitude comparison, inlet flow profile conditions, and outlet boundary conditions. The “Best Practice” setup gave good overall results compared with challenge participant and in-vitro data.