Mechanical bidomain model of cardiac tissue

Abstract

Intracellular and extracellular spaces are separately considered in an electrical bidomain model of tissue. We propose a mechanical bidomain model separately considering the intracellular and extracellular spaces, coupled through a linear restoring force proportional to the displacement difference of the two spaces. We consider a mechanically passive model of heart fibers (no tension) with an action potential, and an electrically passive model (no action potential) in tissue with an ischemic boundary. We find the pressure and displacement fields arising from our consideration of a bidomain instead of a monodomain and note interesting characteristics evident only with a bidomain approach.