Computational fluid dynamics based design of artificial heart - An axial flow pump as a right ventricular assist device -

Abstract

In recent years, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used for designing rotary blood pumps. The secondary flow in the pump, especially between the blades, can be simulated by CFD and more precise prediction of pump performance at design and offdesign points can be made. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is engaged in establishing guidelines for the usage of CFD in the research and development phase of medical devices in order to help speed up the FDA approval process. The utilization of CFD is expected to increase further. In this study, we designed an axial flow blood pump and the flow field within the pump was calculated by CFD analysis. It was confirmed that the pump performance was suitable for right heart assistance.