Is it possible to run simulations on a hollow spherical mesh (no volume)?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm working on cardiac simulations with OpenCARP and I was wondering if it's possible to run a simulation on a spherical mesh that only has surface elements—essentially a hollow shell with no internal volume. The idea is to have a closed surface that is relatively large, but empty on the inside.

Is this feasible with OpenCARP? Would it be compatible with monodomain or bidomain models? If so, are there any specific considerations I should keep in mind when generating the mesh or setting up the simulation?

Thanks in advance for any guidance!

Best regards,

Answer 1

Yes, openCARP monodomain and bidomain simulations are compatible with surface meshes. 

The mesh should be in micrometers and the mesh resolution should be no larger than 500 micrometers to obtain good solutions (ideally 100-200 micrometers if possible). It should be available in the openCARP format (please refer to the manual for details) and it should contain element tags to assign properties such as conductivity and a fiber direction. If your mesh is in a format like vtk, you can use meshtool convert to convert it to openCARP format.

For the setup of the simulation you can follow the examples provided on the website.

Best, Tobias