Affiliations: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Yun Luo, State Key Laboratory of Mechanical System and Vibration, Institute of Biomedical Manufacturing and Life Quality Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dong Chuan Rd., Shanghai 200240, China. Tel./Fax: +21 3420 6078; E-mail:luoyun@sjtu.edu.cn
Abstract: Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have been
verified as an effective way for the patients who suffer from the end-stage
heart failure. In order to prolong the lifespan of the LVAD, a blood pump
with magnetically or hydrodynamically suspended impeller is preferred.
Magnetic bearings need active control consuming extra energy and
hydrodynamic bearings running at very small clearance gaps can yield
increased blood damage. A novel blood pump with a passively injection
suspended impeller and a gap between casing and impeller in the large range
of 0.6 mm is presented in this paper. This design allows the blood pump to
eliminate the sensors for active control and operate at low levels of
shearing stress. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis was
conducted to primary verify the effectiveness of injection principle. The
hydraulic performance and axial levitation performance test were performed
to prove feasibility of the design.
Keywords: Left ventricular assist device, injection suspended impeller, hydrodynamic force
