Finite Element Driven Design Domain Identification of a Beating Left Ventricular Simulator

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Cardiovascular Device Development
• Computational Mechanics

Background:

• Heart disease affects nearly 10% of Americans, necessitating advanced treatments like left ventricular assist devices (LVADs).
• In-vitro mock circulation studies are vital for LVAD development, requiring accurate heart simulators.
• Existing beating left ventricular simulators have shown limitations in flow rate.

Purpose of the Study:

• To optimize the design of a beating left ventricular simulator using a finite element-driven approach.
• To identify optimal parameters for wall thickness, actuator number, and actuator orientation for enhanced deformation.
• To improve the performance of simulators used in left ventricular assist device development.

Main Methods:

• Development and validation of a nonlinear finite element model of the beating left ventricular simulator.
• Creation of a design domain comprising 150 finite element models with varied parameters.
• Systematic variation of wall thickness, number of McKibben actuators, and their helical orientation angle.

Main Results:

• The finite element analysis identified specific design parameters for improved simulator performance.
• A combination of 4 mm wall thickness and 8 actuators with a 90-degree orientation angle yielded the best deformation.
• This optimized configuration significantly enhances the simulator's ability to mimic cardiac function.

Conclusions:

• Finite element analysis is effective for optimizing complex biomedical device designs.
• The identified optimal parameters provide a pathway for developing more efficient and accurate left ventricular assist device simulators.
• Improved simulator performance can accelerate the development and validation of life-saving cardiovascular technologies.