Measurement of the rotor motion and corresponding hemolysis of a centrifugal blood pump with a magnetic and hydrodynamic hybrid bearing.

This study proposed a centrifugal blood pump with a novel magnetic and hydrodynamic hybrid passive bearing, which consisted of a plain journal bearing for radial stability and a permanent magnetic bearing for axial and tilting stability. We measured the radial motion of the bearing and performed hemolysis tests for the different radial clearance sizes. In the results, it appeared that the radial motion had two modes: the stable center mode, in which the radius of the radial motion rapidly converged to less than 20 microm; and the unstable circle mode, in which the rotor suspension linearly increased with the rotation speed. It also appeared that the pumps with the radial clearance of 80 microm caused more hemolysis than with the smaller clearance sizes in the circle mode. The circle mode was avoidable by the higher rotation or the asymmetric pump structure, but the mechanism of hemolysis in this mode was still unclear.