Artery Remodeling in Hypotension Using a Topology Optimization Method

Growth, remodeling and morphogenesis are the three different processes leading to the generation of biological forms [1]. Artery remodeling involves changes in arterial geometry and mechanical properties [2]. In-vitro and In-vivo experiments showed that the artery growth and remodeling rate are associated with the magnitude of the applied stress [3]. Mathematical models, including thin-walled artery model [4,5] and thick-walled artery model [6–9], have been extensively used to describe artery growth and remodeling under alternation of physiological arterial wall and shear stresses. To accommodate the complex three dimensional geometry, loading and boundary conditions, a numerical scheme based on homogenization method was proposed in this work to mimic the artery growth under the condition of hypotension. The structural topology optimization scheme, probably for the first time in the application of arterial growth, was adopted here. The remodeling processes of a...