CFD Application in ImplantableRotary Blood Pump Design and Validation

CFD Application in Implantable Rotary Blood Pump Design and Validation

Implantable rotary blood pump (IRBP) has been promoted to the stage of clinical trial. This paper introduces a unique IRBP without a shaft. Instead of using thrombogenic pivots or power-drawing magnetic suspension, impeller is supported hydrodynamically when rotating, by lubrication flows in the thin spaces between itself and the pump body. To this end, the flow is very difficult to be measured using usual laboratory equipments. Therefore, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been applied as an important tool in the IRBP design and its validation procedure. Several CFD results such as pump performance improvement, unsteady hydraulic dynamic analysis, biocapability prediction, validation and verification (V&V), and flow visualization have been performed.