Computational flow study for design of secondary impeller of IVAS rotodynamic heart pump

The secondary impeller of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation IVAS blood pump is configured to maintain a good washing blood flow through the journal bearing and associated internal passages of the pump. The complexity of the total flow path, the rather low blade height, and the relatively low net flow, makes accurate analysis with conventional design methods very difficult, however. Computational fluid dynamics analysis techniques can provide significant input to the pump design. Two- and three-dimensional unsteady Navier-Stokes equations were solved on Cray YMP and T3D computers using a new solution algorithm. The 2D and 3D modeling included both simplified and fully detailed geometries.