Lumped models of the cardiovascular system of various complexity

Abstract Purpose The main objective is to accelerate the mathematical modeling of complex systems and offer the researchers an accessible and standardized platform for model sharing and reusing. Methods We describe a methodology for creating mathematical lumped models, decomposing a system into basic components represented by elementary physical laws and relationships expressed as equations. Our approach is based on Modelica, an object-oriented, equation-based, visual, non-proprietary modeling language, together with Physiolibrary, an open-source library for the domain of physiology. Results We demonstrate this methodology on an open implementation of a range of simple to complex cardiovascular models, with great complexity variance (simulation time from several seconds to hours). The parts of different complexity could be combined together. Conclusions Thanks to the equation-based nature of Modelica, a hierarchy of subsystems can be built with an appropriate connecting component. Such a structural model follows the concept of the system rather than the computational order. Such a model representation retains structural knowledge, which is important for e.g., model maintainability and reusability of the components and multidisciplinary cooperation with domain experts not familiar with modeling methods.