Numerical simulation of human systemic arterial hemodynamics based on a transmission line model and recursive algorithm

A novel recursive algorithm was proposed to calculate the input impedance of human systemic arterial tree, and to simulate the human systemic arterial hemodynamics with an 55 segment transmission line model. In calculation of input impedance, the structure of the arterial tree was expressed as a single linked list. An infinitesimal constant was used to replace 0 Hz frequency to calculate the DC and AC part of input impedance simultaneously. The input impedance at any point of the arterial tree can obtain easily by the proposed recursive algorithm. The results of input impedance are in accord with experimental data and other models' results. In addition, some comparisons were conducted about the effects of arterial compliance, length, internal radius and wall thickness on the input impedance of ascending aorta. The results showed input impedances of ascending aorta displayed significantly different characteristics for different kinds of parameters. Finally, the blood pressure and flow waveforms of all arterial segments were calculated and displayed in 3D. The arterial elasticity and viscosity were discussed by changing the Young's modulus and the phase difference, respectively. The simulation results showed that the blood pressure and flow waveforms of the arterial tree reflected accurately the main characteristic features of physiopathological changes, which demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed model.