Removing the Valves and Coronary Arteries/Veins from the Model

You can simplify the Heart Model by de-activating the valves and/or coronary arteries and veins. The inclusion of the valves and coronary arteries/veins adds additional computational cost due to an increase in element count, as well as additional constraints and contact definitions. Therefore, you may want to remove these features from the simulation if your use case does not require any detailed modeling of this anatomy.

This page discusses:

Remove Valves

The following procedure describes how to remove the mitral valve. You should follow a similar procedure to remove any of the other three valves.
  1. Remove the contact definitions related to the mitral valve and associated chordae.
    1. Switch to the Interaction module.
    2. Select the MECH-VALVES model and the BEAT1 step.
    3. Select Interaction > Edit > CONTACT
    4. Edit the selected surface pairs and delete any pairs that contain the instance names MITRALVALVE_MESH-1 and CHORDAE_TENDINEAE_MITRAL-1.
    5. Click OK to close the editor.
    6. Click OK to close the Interaction Manager.
  2. Suppress any constraints related to the mitral valve and chordae, such as
    • TIE-MV-LV
    • Tie-Chordae-MV
    • Tie-Chordae-LV
    1. Open the Constraint Manager.
    2. For the above constraints, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the constraint is suppressed.
    3. Click OK to close the Constraint Manager.
  3. Suppress any loads related to the mitral valve, such as
    • MitralValvePressure
    • MitralValvePressure-Neg
    1. Switch to the Load module.
    2. Open the Load Manager.
    3. For the above loads, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the load is suppressed.
    4. Click OK to close the Load Manager.
  4. Suppress any predefined fields that are associated with the mitral valve and chordae, such as
    • mitralValve-Ini
    • Chordae-mitral-temp
    1. From the Load module, open the Predefined Field Manager.
    2. For the above predefined fields, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the predefined fields is suppressed.
    3. Click OK to close the Predefined Field Manager.
  5. Suppress any instances in the assembly that are associated with the mitral valve and chordae, such as
    • MITRALVALVE_MESH-1
    • CHORDAE_TENDINEAE_MITRAL-1
    1. From the Model Tree, expand the model mech-valves.
    2. Expand the Assembly. If necessary, right click on the assembly to unlock it.
    3. Expand the Instances.
    4. Right-click on the above instances, and click Surpress. A red cross indicates the instance is suppressed.
  6. Run the fixConflicts Abaqus/CAE plug-in to finish the mechanical model.
    1. From the main menu, select Plug-ins > Living Heart Human Model > Finish Mechanical Model. When the script is complete, Abaqus/CAE displays Complete! in the message area.
  7. The simulation is now ready to be submitted without the mitral valve.
    1. Launch the Job Module.
    2. To write the input file without performing the analysis, select Job > Write Input > job name from the main menu bar. The input file job name.inp is written to the directory from which you started Abaqus/CAE.

Remove the Coronary Arteries/Veins

The following procedure describes how to remove a single branch of the coronary arteries (the part instance Coronary_Arteries1-1). You should follow a similar procedure to remove any of the other branches of arteries or veins.

  1. Remove the contact definitions related to the coronary artery.
    1. Switch to the Interaction Module.
    2. Select Model: MECH-VALVES and Step: Preload.
    3. From the Interaction Manager, select CONTACTEdit
    4. From the Edit Interaction window, edit the Selected surface pairs and delete any Included pairs that contain the instance name Coronary_Arteries1-1.
    5. Click OK to close the Edit Interaction window.
  2. Select Model: MECH-VALVES and Step: Beat 1 and repeat the previous steps.
  3. Suppress the interaction CA-01-CAV.
    1. From the Interaction Manager, click the green tick mark next to the interaction CA-01-CAV. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the interaction is suppressed.
  4. Suppress the constraints related to the coronary artery, such as
    • DCOUP-CA1-01
    • TIE-CORONARY-ARTERIES1-EDGE
    • TIE-VENTRICLE-CORONARY-ARTERIES1_1
    • TIE-VENTRICLE-CORONARY-ARTERIES1_2
    • Tie-L_ATRIUM-CORONARY-ARTERIES1
    1. Open the Constraint Manager.
    2. For the above constraints, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the constraint is suppressed.
    3. Click OK to close the Constraint Manager.
  5. Suppress the boundary condition Pressure-Coronary-Arteries1.
    1. Switch to the Load Module.
    2. Open the Boundary Condition Manager.
    3. For the above boundary condition, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the boundary condition is suppressed.
    4. Click OK to close the Boundary Condition Manager.
  6. Suppress the predefined field for the coronary artery Coronary_Arteries1.
    1. From the Load module, open the Predefined Field Manager.
    2. For the above predefined field, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the predefined field is suppressed.
    3. Click OK to close the Predefined Field Manager.
  7. Suppress any history output from the coronary artery, such as CA-01.
    1. Switch to the Step Module.
    2. Open the History Output Manager.
    3. For the above history output, click the green tick mark. A red cross replaces the tick mark, indicating the history output is suppressed.
    4. Click OK to close the History Output Manager.
  8. Suppress the instance in the Assembly associated with the coronary artery Coronary_Arteries1-1.
    1. From the Model Tree, expand the model mech-valves.
    2. Expand the Assembly. If necessary, right click on the assembly to unlock it.
    3. Expand the Instances.
    4. Right-click on the above instance, and click Surpress. A red cross indicates the instance is suppressed.
  9. Run the fixConflicts Abaqus/CAE plug-in to finish the mechanical model.
    1. From the main menu, select Plug-ins > Living Heart Human Model > Finish Mechanical Model. When the script is complete, Abaqus/CAE displays Complete! in the message area.
  10. The simulation is now ready to be submitted without the coronary artery.
    1. Launch the Job Module.
    2. To write the input file without performing the analysis, select Job > Write Input > job name from the main menu bar. The input file job name.inp is written to the directory from which you started Abaqus/CAE.