Integration of Surrogate Huxley Muscle Model into Finite Element Solver for Simulation of the Cardiac Cycle

Abstract

Clinicians can use biomechanical simulations of cardiac functioning to evaluate various real and fictional events. Our present understanding of the molecular processes behind muscle contraction has inspired Huxley-like muscle models. Huxley-type muscle models, unlike Hill-type muscle models, are capable of modeling non-uniform and unstable contractions. Huxley's computational requirements, on the other hand, are substantially higher than those of Hill-type models, making large-scale simulations impractical to use. We created a data-driven surrogate model that acts similarly to the original Huxley muscle model but requires substantially less processing power in order to make the Huxley muscle models easier to use in computer simulations. We gathered data from multiple numerical simulations and trained a deep neural network based on gated-recurrent units. Once we accomplished satisfying precision, we integrated the surrogate model into our finite element solver and simulated a full cardiac cycle. Clinical Relevance - This enables clinicians to track the effects of changes in muscles at the microscale to the cardiac contraction (macroscale).