A domain decomposition strategy for a very high-order finite volumes scheme applied to cardiac electrophysiology

International audienceIn this paper, a domain decomposition technique for a very high-order finite volumes scheme is proposed. The objective is to obtain an efficient way to perform numerical simulations in cardiac electrophysiology. The aim is to extend a very high-order numerical scheme previously designed, where large stencils are used for polynomial reconstructions. Therefore, a particular attention has to be paid to maintain the scalability in parallel. Here, we propose to constrain the stencils inside the subdomains or their first layer of neighbors. The method is shown to remain accurate and to scale perfectly up to the level where there are not enough cells in the subdomains. Hence, these high-order schemes are proved to be efficient tools to perform realistic simulations in cardiac electrophysiology

Semi-implicit Non-conforming Finite-Element Schemes for Cardiac Electrophysiology: A Framework for Mesh-Coarsening Heart Simulations

The field of computational cardiology has steadily progressed toward reliable and accurate simulations of the heart, showing great potential in clinical applications such as the optimization of cardiac interventions and the study of pro-arrhythmic effects of drugs in humans, among others. However, the computational effort demanded by in-silico studies of the heart remains challenging, highlighting the need of novel numerical methods that can improve the efficiency of simulations while targeting an acceptable accuracy. In this work, we propose a semi-implicit non-conforming finite-element scheme (SINCFES) suitable for cardiac electrophysiology simulations. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed scheme are assessed by means of numerical simulations of the electrical excitation and propagation in regular and biventricular geometries. We show that the SINCFES allows for coarse-mesh simulations that reduce the computation time when compared to fine-mesh models while delivering wavefront shapes and conduction velocities that are more accurate than those predicted by traditional finite-element formulations based on the same coarse mesh, thus improving the accuracy-efficiency trade-off of cardiac simulations

Very high order finite volume methods for cardiac electrophysiology

Numerical simulation of the propagation of electrical signals in the heart is a very demanding application. In fact, very fine meshes and small time steps are currently required to capture the phenomena. In this paper, we propose and explore a very high-order scheme specifically designed for this application. Its numerical properties are detailed and the different choices on both the scheme’s definition and implementation are discussed and justified. Numerical results show the importance of considering very high-order schemes, even for classical tests such as the propagation of planar or spiral waves.Modèles numériques haute résolution de l'électrophysiologie cardiaqu