Numerical Simulation of Pulsatile Blood Flow Across a Tilting Disk Valve

Abstract

To overcome several clinical challenges involving mechanical heart valves, accurate numerical simulation of blood flow through these devices has been of interest. Since heart disease is the leading cause of death around the world, the hemodynamic study of the heart is of extraordinary interest in the field of bio fluid dynamics. Recent numerical/experimental investigations have shown that mechanical heart valves inherit “production of sufficiently large shear and turbulent stresses to cause clinical problems such as hemolysis.” Due to several parameters including the non-Newtonian behavior of blood, pulsatile waveform, strong blood and tissue interactions, clinical difficulties, etc., experimental examination of blood flow in heart and its valves is a very difficult task. Therefore, comprehensive numerical analysis of this complex fluid-structure system is essential. However, precise experimental investigations are still imperative for developing appropriate and accurate turbulence models and validating numerical techniques. In the current computational effort, a numerical simulation of physiological pulsatile blood flow through 2D and 3D models of a Bjork-Shiley tilting-disk mechanical heart valve in the aortic position is performed to investigate the three-dimensional effects as well as the influences of pulsatile waveform and non-Newtonian viscosity on the overall flow structure.