Sensitivity of flow simulations in a cerebral aneurysm

Abstract The flow in a cerebral aneurysm on the Anterior Communicating Artery is simulated based on patient medical imaging. The sensitivity of the flow pattern is assessed with respect to variation of outflow split and geometric parameters. A comparison is made between the results from unsteady pulsatile computations and steady-state computations. The results show that for this case there is no significant sensitivity to pulsatile flow-rate variations. Steady-state and pulsatile simulations both predict a strong sensitivity to outflow split and geometric smoothing. It is therefore proposed to analyse the stability of aneurysmal flow with an extensive sensitivity study based on steady-state computations and use this sensitivity for rupture prediction.