Abstract
A centrifugal blood pump with a double pivot impeller and an eccentric inlet port is under development for implantable artificial heart by Baylor college of medicine/Miwatec Co. Ltd. To eliminate fluid dynamic causes for thrombus formation, flow visualization analysis was conducted to evaluate the flow patterns and the shear rate distributions. It was found that an eccentric vortex is formed in the pump apart from the pivot center as the prerotation caused by the eccentric inlet port. Since a similar eccentric vortex is also formed behind the impeller, the pivot is exposed to sinusoidally changing shear rate. The minimum value was found to be 650(sec)_<-1>. It was found that the value can be increased to more than 150% when the male pivot is lifted from the female pivot by 0.6mm.
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