Comparison of haemodynamic structures in skeletal muscle ventricle and in a human left ventricle

Modelling of the flow in the human left ventricle is one of the most challenging problems for the present generation of blood flow modellers. Due to the complex geometry and flow features, analytical approaches are not accurate and numerical modelling is the only method which can be pursued. Powerful Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) codes developed in the last few years offer the required capabilities of modelling physiological types of flow in realistic geometries. High definition in vivo data such as 3-D echography and MRI scans can be used to define the geometry of the solution domain for the internal ventricular volume. The study of the haemodynamics in the natural ventricle may give design insight into the modelling of artificial ventricles, such as the Skeletal Muscle Ventricle (SMV). Initial numerical studies of model SMVs have been performed by Iudicello with the ultimate objective of designing the optimal model in terms of pumping performance and also as values of particle resisence time and level of shear stress in the fluid and at the wall. Numerical predictions of the flow structure in simplified left ventricle models are presented on a progression of increasingly realistic geometries with the ultimate objective of directly using 3-D echography data. These are compared with the flow structures predicted in model SMVs. This comparative study is expected to give design guidance from the fluid dynamics in the natural ventricle for the construction of an artificial one