Numerical simulation of the flow field within the aortic arch during cardiac assist

In recent years, artificial heart devices have been implanted in a considerable number of patients with terminal cardiac failure for bridge to transplantation and even destination therapy. These devices provide either pulsatile or continuous blood flow. To determine eventual physiological effects of these different types of flow on the aorta,a computational fluid dynamics model of the aorta and its thoracic branches was implemented. Pulsatile and continuous flow fields were calculated by implementing a comprehensive computational framework with a stabilized finite element method. The computed results revealed that the pulsatile pump support results in a lower mean shear stress and higher oscillatory shear stress index than the continuous pump support. The flow patterns for the pulsatile pump support above the closed aortic valves show a similar washout as for the continuous pump support. In summary, from the flow pattern simulation there was no particular preference for either pulsatile or continuous devices