Optimizing ventricular assist device rotor design parameters through computational fluid dynamics and design of experiments.

Heart failure is among the most widespread diseases globally. With the rapid rise in the number of affected individuals and the significant disparity between organ demand and supply, the relevance of implantable devices has grown each year. However, these devices face various regulatory restrictions, and obtaining approval requires outstanding performance.

Analysis of shear stress related hemolysis in a ventricular assist device.

Background: Implantable devices such as ventricular assist devices provide appropriate treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. Unfortunately, these devices still have many problems, particularly related to blood damage.

Objective: The aim of this research is to examine two new ventricular assist devices in terms of induced shear stress, exposure time, and induced hemolysis.

Numerical study of a new ventricular assist device.

The present work presents a numerical study of two axial ventricular assist devices (VADs) with two different designs. The geometry of the first design was inspired by DeBakey's rotary blood pump and the geometry of the second design is based on BioCirc's pediatric VAD. The goal is to see which of the two designs has promising capabilities in terms of pressure differential, flow rate, and thrombosis before proceeding to deeper investigations.