Here’s a look at some notable open-source models in heart valve simulation and design, highlighting their capabilities and limitations.

• Heart Valve Benchmark Models (OpenFOAM)

OpenFOAM has several benchmark models for simulating heart valves in fluid-structure interactions. These models can recreate the essential blood flow dynamics around valve leaflets, which are key to assessing performance. However, they sometimes lack complexity in material properties, making it difficult to fully replicate biological tissue behaviors over time, such as degradation or fatigue. These benchmarks provide a good starting point for fluid flow simulation, but additional material modeling might be needed to enhance realism.

• SimVascular

SimVascular is an open-source tool that provides end-to-end simulation of cardiovascular flows, covering both geometry creation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It includes modules for personalized valve geometry and flow simulations. However, it’s primarily geared toward vascular rather than valvular structures, so while it does an excellent job in the general cardiovascular realm, it lacks specialized modules for valves, particularly those subject to dynamic loading over long periods. Extending this tool for heart valves could help refine simulations under various patient conditions, improving outcomes by better customizing valves to specific patient anatomies.

• FEBio for Biomechanics

FEBio excels at simulating soft tissue mechanics, offering finite element models that mimic the deformation of biological tissues. This makes it ideal for testing the mechanical behavior of valve leaflets under cyclic loading. Its limitations lie in the need for complex scripting to integrate with fluid dynamics, which might not fully capture the valve’s movement in a pulsatile flow environment. Extending FEBio’s integration with fluid models would allow a more comprehensive look at how mechanical wear impacts valve performance over time.

• Palabos

Palabos is an open-source tool using lattice Boltzmann methods for fluid simulations. While it’s useful for complex flow analysis, it lacks inherent support for solid mechanics, which makes simulating the interaction between blood and flexible valve leaflets challenging. Adapting Palabos with added material properties would help simulate realistic valve deformations and enhance the predictive accuracy of blood flow modeling through the valve.

• Kratos Multiphysics

Known for its flexibility, Kratos Multiphysics can handle fluid-structure interactions (FSI), essential for simulating blood flow across flexible valve leaflets. Kratos offers highly customizable physics simulations and is adaptable to different materials and flow conditions. However, setup complexity can be challenging, especially for users without extensive experience in multiphysics simulation. Additionally, there are limited pre-built cardiac data, which could increase the time needed to prepare and validate realistic models.

• SOFA Framework

This modular simulation platform is used for biomechanics, especially in medical simulations involving soft tissue mechanics. SOFA’s real-time simulation capabilities and modularity make it adaptable for prototyping heart valves with different materials. On the downside, SOFA lacks direct cardiovascular applications, so customization and development are required to model heart valve behavior effectively.

Building upon and Diverging from these solutions
While these tools provide a solid foundation, our project will focus on creating a heart valve design that combines durability with minimal anticoagulant dependency, addressing a key clinical gap. Unlike SimVascular or OpenHeart, our approach emphasizes enhanced biocompatibility in materials and more advanced fluid-structure interaction simulations to capture realistic valve leaflet dynamics. Additionally, our project seeks to integrate diagnostic monitoring capabilities within the valve design itself, offering continuous data on valve performance—a feature not currently prioritized in available open-source models.
This enhanced approach will not only improve clinical outcomes by extending valve lifespan but also offer a proactive way to monitor and manage patient health over time, contributing to both improved quality of life and reduced healthcare costs.