A new way to simulate the fluid structure interaction between the bioprosthetic heart valve and blood: FE-SPH method

The object of this study is to utilize FE-SPH method to simulate the dynamic behavior of bioprosthetic heart valve during systole. Two kind of bioprosthetic heart valve' numerical models are designed based on membrane theory, and they are represented by FE mesh, the blood is modelled as SPH particles. The interaction between the blood and bioprosthetic heart valve is carried out with contact algorithms. Results show that: when the valve leaflets are opening, compared with that of spherical valve, the stress and strain states of cylindrical valve are unstable, and the peak Von Mises is also higher, which high peak stress and its instability may induce the fatigue of valve. The valve opening time of columnar valve leaflets is longer than that of spherical ones, which reduces the blood ejection time. Above results indicate that spherical valve is superior to cylindrical valve. The FE-SPH method is capable of simulating the fluid structure interaction between the bioprosthetic heart valve and blood during the systole.