On Assessing the Quality of Particle Tracking Through Computational Fluid Dynamic Models

Quantification of particle deposition patterns, transit times, and shear exposure is important for computational fluid dynamic (CFD) studies involving respiratory and arterial models. To numerically compute such path-dependent quantities, it is necessary to employ a Lagrangian approach where particles are tracked through a pre-computed velocity field. However, it is difficult to determine in advance whether a particular velocity field is sufficiently resolved for the purposes of tracking particles accurately. Towards this end, we propose the use of volumetric residence time (VRT)—previously defined for 2-D studies of platelet activation and here extended to more physiologically relevant 3-D models—as a means of quantifying whether a volume of Lagrangian fluid elements (LFE’s) seeded uniformly and contiguously at the model inlet remains uniform throughout the flow domain. Such “Lagrangian mass conservation” is shown to be satisfied when VRT=1 throughout the model domain. To demonstrate this novel concept, we computed maps of VRT and particle deposition in 3-D steady flow models of a stenosed carotid bifurcation constructed with one adaptively refined and three nominally uniform finite element meshes of increasing element density. A key finding was that uniform VRT could not be achieved for even the most resolved meshes and densest LFE seeding, suggesting that care should be taken when extracting quantitative information about path-dependent quantities. The VRT maps were found to be useful for identifying regions of a mesh that were under-resolved for such Lagrangian studies, and for guiding the construction of more adequately resolved meshes.