Modeling of Soft Tissues Interacting with Fluid (Blood or Air) Using the Immersed Finite Element Method

This paper presents some biomedical applications that involve fluid-structure interactions which are simulated using the Immersed Finite Element Method (IFEM). Here, we first review the original and enhanced IFEM methods that are suitable to model incompressible or compressible fluid that can have densities that are significantly lower than the solid, such as air. Then, three biomedical applications are studied using the IFEM. Each of the applications may require a specific set of IFEM formulation for its respective numerical stability and accuracy due to the disparities between the fluid and the solid. We show that these biomedical applications require a fully-coupled and stable numerical technique in order to produce meaningful results.