Hydrodynamic design and performance analysis of a centrifugal blood pump for cardiopulmonary circulation

This paper presents the hydrodynamic design and performance analysis method for a miniaturized centrifugal blood pump using three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. In order to obtain the hydraulically high efficient configuration of a miniaturized centrifugal blood pump for cardiopulmonary circulation, well-established commercial CFD codes were incorporated considering detailed flow dynamic phenomena in the blood pump system. A prototype of centrifugal blood pump developed by the present design and analysis method has been tested in the mock circulatory system. Predicted results by the CFD code agree very well with in vitro hydraulic performance data for a centrifugal blood pump over the entire operating conditions. Preliminary in vivo animal testing has also been conducted to demonstrate the haemodynamic feasibility for use of centrifugal blood pump as a mechanical circulatory support. A miniaturized centrifugal blood pump developed by the hydraulic design optimization and performance prediction method, presented herein, shows the possibility of a good candidate for intra and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary circulation pump in the near future.