A spline-based hexahedral mesh generator for patient-specific coronary arteries

Abstract: This paper presents a spline-based hexahedral mesh generator for tubular geometries commonly encountered in haemodynamics studies, in particular coronary arteries. We focus on techniques for accurately meshing stenoses and non-planar bifurcations. Our approach incorporates several innovations, including a spline-based description of the vessel geometry in both the radial and the longitudinal directions, and the use of Hermite curves for modeling non-planar bifurcations. This method eliminates the need for a concrete vessel surface, grid smoothing, and other post-processing techniques. A generalization to non-planar intersecting branches is discussed. We validate the generated meshes using commonly-employed quality indices and present numerical results with physiological boundary conditions, demonstrating the potential of the proposed framework. Patient-specific geometries are reconstructed from invasive coronary angiographies performed in the Fractional Flow Reserve versus Angiography for Multivessel Evaluation 2 (FAME 2) trial.