Simulation of Bileaf Curved Surface Mechanical Heart Valve: A Steady Flow Analysis

Approximately two-thirds of heart valves are bileaf plane mechanical heart valves, however the plane valveleaf is not the best shape for the hydrodynamic characteristics. The main purpose of this study is to compare the hydrodynamic characteristics of plane valve with curved valve under the steady flow analysis. In this work, two styles of curved valves were designed and nine different 3D flow models were constructed. All of the simulations were carried out by using ANSYS/Flotran software. The result shows that the flowing volumes through the curved valves are larger than that through the plane valve; the curved designs can decrease the energy loss when the flow go through the valve; the pressures and torque on the valves decrease rapidly with the valves opening. The results in the work are proven by the other researches. This study can offer us a useful and convenient method to analyze the hydrodynamic characteristics of mechanical heart valve.