The Geometric and Material Nonlinear Analysis of the Bioprosthetic Heart Valve
This paper constructs four types of bioprosthetic heart valve’s parametric model via computer aided design, a series of accurate parameters of the bioprosthetic heart valve, such as radius of the sutural ring, height of the supporting stent and inclination of the supporting stent are determined. The finite element method is used to analyze the mechanical properties of the bioprosthetic heart valve in which geometric non-linearity and material non-linearity are all taken into account. The finite element analysis results show that the shape of the bioprosthetic has a significant effect on the mechanical performance of the valve. The stress distribution of ellipsoidal valve leaflets is comparatively reasonable. It has lower peak von-Mises, smaller stress concentration area than the other three types of valve leaflets. This work is very helpful to manufacture valvular leaflets with reasonable shapes and to prolong the lifetime of the bioprosthetic heart valve.