A computational fluid dynamics simulation of aortic hemodynamic effects of a 10-meter radius centrifuge model of artificial gravity

Interplanetary space travel is becoming an immediate focus of the aerospace industry along with developing artificial gravity systems that minimize the negative effects of long-term microgravity. The physiological aspects of altered blood flow in artificial gravity environments are not well understood and require a more complete understanding of fluid behavior. The purpose of this study is to understand the effects of artificial gravity on the hemodynamics within the cardiovascular system. We propose taking a computational approach to describe the fluid dynamics in a centrifuge model with a radius of 10 meters that rotates at an angular velocity of 1 radian/second, resulting in an angular acceleration of 10 meters/second 2 . We chose to investigate the fluid dynamics of the aorta in this model because it is the major conduit vessel responsible for distributing oxygenated blood to vital organs. We hypothesized that this centrifugation model of artificial gravity will have no significant effect on blood pressure in the aortic arch compared to normal conditions simulating Earth's gravity. The human aorta was meshed with ANSYS Fluent, and the blood was modeled as a Newtonian fluid, with density and viscosity values typical for human blood. Boundary conditions include an inlet velocity profile consistent with physiologically realistic cardiac output, as well as pressure outlets at major branches. In the artificial gravity model, the centrifugal force was incorporated into the simulation as a custom field function that depends on the angular velocity and radius, simulating the effects of rotation at 1 rad/s in a 10-meter radius centrifuge. Simulation output was collected for 10 cardiac cycles. Peak systolic and diastolic pressures were averaged over 10 cardiac cycles, and standard deviation was calculated. Our results show that the mean systolic and diastolic pressure under normal conditions were 125.67 ±0.80 mmHg and 93.50 ±4.82 mmHg, respectively. Mean systolic and diastolic pressures in the artificial gravity simulation were 127.02 ±0.47 mmHg and 94.13 ±3.75 mmHg, respectively. Two-tailed t-test analysis for systolic pressure in each condition revealed a significantly higher systolic pressure in the artificial gravity condition (p<0.001), but no significant differences between conditions for diastolic pressure (p=0.641). An increased systolic pressure through the aorta in an artificial gravity simulation suggests increased cardiovascular workload and could lead to altered vascular remodeling and implications for astronaut cardiovascular health during extended space missions. The pressure values obtained from these simulations will be used for future work investigating the gravity gradient and Coriolis forces on the cardiovascular system with a Navier-Stokes equation solver, Fenics. This work is supported by Iowa Space Grant Consortium/NASA grant No. 103428-19-20. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2025 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.