Directed Particle Systems (2012-present) | Professor Nigel W. John

Professor Nigel W. John FEG FLSW

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Directed Particle Systems (2012-present)



This project is another example of adapting particle systems, in this case to model real time blood flow for use in our medical simulators. Blood is a non-newtonian fluid and can be regarded as a suspension in which solid blood cells, such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, are suspended in fluid plasma. In our Directed Particles approach, each blood particle is considered as a boid and an adapted flocking algorithm applied with three rules: avoid collisions with nearby boids; attempt to match velocity (speed and direction) with nearby boids; and attempt to stay close to nearby boids. This relatively simple approach has achieved accurate results (Pop, Hughes, Ap Cenydd, John, & others, 2012).

This is an ongoing project, collaborating with Serban Pop, Chris Hughes and others. A particular goal is to provide a decicion support tool for our clinical collaborator, Prof Michael Rees, an interventional cardiologist. This tool will predict blood flow through patient specific anatomy and can be used to help plan surgical interventions.

Further Reading

  1. Pop, S. R., Hughes, C. J., Ap Cenydd, L., John, N. W., & others. (2012). A directed particle system for optimised visualization of blood flow in complex networks. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, 184, 330–336.