Fluid-structure interaction of deformable aortic prostheses with a bileaflet mechanical valve

Two different aortic prostheses can be used for performing the Bentall procedure: a standard straight graft and the Valsalva graft that better reproduces the aortic root anatomy. The aim of the present work is to study the effect of the graft geometry on the blood flow when a bileaflet mechanical heart valve is used, as well as to evaluate the stress concentration near the suture line where the coronary arteries are connected to graft. An accurate three-dimensional numerical method is proposed, based on the immersed boundary technique. The method accounts for the interactions between the flow and the motion of the rigid leaflets and of the deformable aortic root, under physiological pulsatile conditions. The results show that the graft geometry only slightly influences the leaflets dynamics, while using the Valsalva graft the stress level near the coronary-root anastomoses is about half that obtained using the standard straight graft.