Evaluation of hydraulic force on a magnetically levitated impeller for improvement of a novel flow rate estimation method of a centrifugal blood pump

Author(s):  
Shuya SHIDA ◽  
Toru MASUZAWA ◽  
Masahiro OSA
2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (12) ◽  
pp. 774-781
Author(s):  
Shuya Shida ◽  
Toru Masuzawa ◽  
Masahiro Osa

Implantable ventricular assist devices are a type of mechanical circulatory support for assisting the pumping of the heart. Accurate estimation of the flow rate through such devices is critical to ensure effective performance. A novel method for estimating the flow rate using the passively stabilized position of a magnetically levitated impeller was developed by our group. However, the performance of the method is affected by the gravity vector, which depends on the patient’s posture. In this study, the effects of gravity on the flow estimation method are analyzed, and a compensation method is proposed. The magnetically levitated impeller is axially suspended and radially restricted by passive stability in a centrifugal blood pump developed by our group. The gravity effects were evaluated by analyzing the relationships between the radial position of the magnetically levitated impeller and the flow rate with respect to the gravity direction. Accurate estimation of the flow rate could not be achieved when the direction of gravity with respect to impeller was unknown. A mean absolute error of up to 4.89 L/min was obtained for flow rate measurement range of 0–5 L/min. However, analysis of the equilibrium of forces on the passively stabilized impeller indicated that the effects of gravity on the flow estimation could be compensated by performing additional measurements of the gravity direction with respect to impeller. The method for compensating the effects of gravity on the flow estimation should improve the performance of therapy with the implantable ventricular assist devices.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 291-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuya Shida ◽  
Toru Masuzawa ◽  
Masahiro Osa

Flow rate estimation for ventricular assist devices without additional flow sensors can improve the quality of life of patients. In this article, a novel flow estimation method using the passively stabilized displacement of a magnetically levitated impeller is developed to achieve sufficient accuracy and precision of flow estimation for ventricular assist devices in a simple manner. The magnetically levitated impeller used is axially suspended by a magnetic bearing in a centrifugal blood pump that has been developed by our group. The radial displacement of the impeller, which is restricted by passive stability, can be correlated with the flow rate because the radial hydraulic force on the impeller varies according to the flow rate. To obtain the correlation with various blood viscosities, the relationships between the radial displacements of the magnetically levitated impeller and the pressure head-flow rate characteristics of the pump were determined simultaneously using aqueous solutions of glycerol with a potential blood viscosity range. The measurement results showed that accurate steady flow rates could be estimated with a coefficient of determination of approximately 0.97 and mean absolute error of approximately 0.22 L/min without fluid viscosity measurements by using the relationships between the impeller displacement and the flow rate. Moreover, a precision of approximately 0.01 (L/min)/µm was obtained owing to a strong estimation indicator signal provided by the large displacement of the passively stabilized impeller; thus, the proposed estimation method can help ensure sufficient accuracy and precision for ventricular assist devices in a simple manner, even if the blood viscosity is unknown.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 6701
Author(s):  
Yuta Sueki ◽  
Yoshiyuki Noda

This paper discusses a real-time flow-rate estimation method for a tilting-ladle-type automatic pouring machine used in the casting industry. In most pouring machines, molten metal is poured into a mold by tilting the ladle. Precise pouring is required to improve productivity and ensure a safe pouring process. To achieve precise pouring, it is important to control the flow rate of the liquid outflow from the ladle. However, due to the high temperature of molten metal, directly measuring the flow rate to devise flow-rate feedback control is difficult. To solve this problem, specific flow-rate estimation methods have been developed. In the previous study by present authors, a simplified flow-rate estimation method was proposed, in which Kalman filters were decentralized to motor systems and the pouring process for implementing into the industrial controller of an automatic pouring machine used a complicatedly shaped ladle. The effectiveness of this flow rate estimation was verified in the experiment with the ideal condition. In the present study, the appropriateness of the real-time flow-rate estimation by decentralization of Kalman filters is verified by comparing it with two other types of existing real-time flow-rate estimations, i.e., time derivatives of the weight of the outflow liquid measured by the load cell and the liquid volume in the ladle measured by a visible camera. We especially confirmed the estimation errors of the candidate real-time flow-rate estimations in the experiments with the uncertainty of the model parameters. These flow-rate estimation methods were applied to a laboratory-type automatic pouring machine to verify their performance.


Author(s):  
Ahmet Onder ◽  
Rafet Yapici ◽  
Omer Incebay

The use of substitute fluid with similar rheological properties instead of blood is important due to ethical concerns and high blood volume consumption in pump performance test before clinical applications. The performance of a centrifugal blood pump with hydrodynamic journal bearing is experimentally tested using Newtonian 40% aqueous glycerin solution (GS) and non-Newtonian aqueous xanthan gum solution of 600 ppm (XGS) as working fluids. Experiments are performed at four different rotational speeds which are 2700, 3000, 3300, and 3600 rpm; experiments using GS reach between 8.5% and 37.2% higher head curve than experiments using the XGS for every rotational speed. It was observed that as the rotational speed and flow rate increase, the head curve difference between GS and XGS decreases. This result can be attributed to the friction reduction effect when using XGS in experiments at high rotation speed and high flow rate. Moreover, due to different fluid viscosities, differences in hydraulic efficiency were observed for both fluids. This study reveals that the use of Newtonian fluids as working fluids is not sufficient to determine the actual performance of a blood pump, and the performance effects of non-Newtonian fluids are remarkably important in pump performance optimizations.


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