PIV validation of blood-heart valve leaflet interaction modelling

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Fluid Dynamics
• Computational Mechanics

Background:

• Accurate simulation of heart valve dynamics is crucial for understanding cardiovascular health.
• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) offers a powerful tool for this analysis.
• Experimental validation is essential to ensure the reliability of these computational models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate 2D CFD results of a moving heart valve.
• To verify a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) algorithm against experimental measurements.
• To demonstrate the applicability of CFD for quantifying shear stress on flexible heart valve leaflets.

Main Methods:

• Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to visualize pulsatile laminar flow through a monoleaflet valve model.
• CFD simulations were performed using a commercial package (Fluent Inc.) combined with in-house FSI code (Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian method).
• PIV data at 60 bpm was used to validate CFD flow simulation and shear stress quantification on the leaflet.

Main Results:

• CFD results generally agreed with PIV-evaluated data in major flow regions.
• The fluid-structure interaction (FSI) simulation of a monoleaflet valve with a flexible leaflet was successfully validated.
• The CFD code demonstrated its applicability for quantifying shear stress on a flexible leaflet.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully validated 2D CFD-FSI simulations against experimental PIV data for a moving heart valve.
• The developed CFD approach accurately predicts blood flow dynamics and leaflet behavior.
• This validates the use of CFD-FSI for analyzing stresses on flexible heart valve prosthetics.