Corrugated diaphragm shape design study for hemocompatible pulsatile ventricular assist devices

Abstract

We aim to maximize the pumping volume of a pulsatile ventricular assist device, where the diaphragm is covered with an endothelial cell layer. These cells are estimated to survive a cyclic strain up to fifteen percent. To increase the pumping volume under this strain constraint we use an approach based on corrugation of the diaphragm in its reference configuration. The paper explains the parametrization scheme for finding corrugation shapes, addresses modeling and evaluation schemes and reports on the results of a parameter study. The results show that corrugated diaphragm shapes are effective for increasing pumping volumes under a strain constraint.

Keywords:

• Pulsatile ventricular assist device
• corrugated diaphragm
• shape parametrization
• nonlinear structural simulation with FEM

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by the “Stiftung PROPTER HOMINES - Vaduz/Fürstentum Liechtenstein”, the “Schwyzer-Winiker Stiftung” and the ETH Zurich Foundation. This work is part of the Zurich Heart project under the umbrella of “University Medicine Zurich/Hochschulmedizin Zürich”.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.