IMPLEMENTATION OF A DIGITAL TWINNING APPROACH TO IMPROVE DESIGNS OF POLYURETHANE HEART VALVES

• Lebohang Masheane Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8200-400X
• Willie du Preez Centre for Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing, Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9935-7330
• Jacques Combrinck Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, Central University of Technology, Bloemfontein, South Africa https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5216-036X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7166/34-4-2982

Abstract

Young sub-Saharan African and developing-world patients with rheumatic heart valve diseases urgently require cost-effective prosthetic valves. To design cost-effective polyurethane heart valves, comprehend haemodynamic behaviour, expedite prototype development, and reduce the need for clinical testing for functional evaluation, the implementation of an experimental test digital twinning is essential. The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and finite element analysis (FEA) to improve heart valve replacement designs rapidly, in order to comply with the minimum requirements of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) regulations and specifications, forms the core of this study. This approach is presented, and the results are discussed. A conclusion is drawn about the valve geometric orifice area (GOA) compared with experimental tests. When the valve was fully opened, there was only an 11% difference between the computed experimental and the finite element GOA. Digital simulation revealed additional information such as the locations of stress concentrations. The FE results showed reasonable similarity with in vitro results.