Angular position determination of heart valves in the pediatric ventricular assist device with use of computational fluid dynamics

This study shows a method than can be used to determine the best angular position of heart valves installed at the inlet and the outlet of a blood chamber during the diastolic phase with use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Steady state simulations of the blood flow through the blood chamber of Pediatric Ventricular Assist Device (PVAD) have been performed with ANSYS CFX 14.0. Main assumptions in the present paper have included: motionless discs, rigid walls, non-Newtonian model of blood. The obtained results show that areas of blood stagnation in the blood chamber are smallest for one particular angular position of the inlet valve and are not significantly dependent on the angular position of the outlet valve.