Executive Summary : | Every year millions of people, both internationally and nationally, are affected by the valvular heart disease which is characterized by the damage or dysfunction of our one or more than one heart valves. This disease often necessitates the replacement of our naive heart valve either with a prosthetic mechanical heart valve or with a bioprosthetic heart valve. However, till to date, all the prosthetic mechanical heart valves that are available in the market show a significant amount of valve-related complications like thromboembolism, endocarditis, bleeding complications, etc. or even deaths, and these are causing due to a nonphysiological flow pattern in and around the valve. Therefore, the aim of this project proposal is to study and design of an artificial mechanical heart valve with a better hemodynamic ability and thromboresistant capability than the other commercially available valves in a cost-effective way. For doing so, some novel strategies will be utilized in this project. For instance, the artificial mechanical heart valve faces the problem of thromboembolism due to the damage of red blood cells (RBCs) and the activation of platelets caused by the direct contact of blood with a foreign material. To obviate this problem, the present project aims to design a cost-effective, biocompatible and superhydrophobic ultra-high molecular weight polyethelene/polytetrafluoroethylene (UHMWPE/PTFE) composite material with an infused immobilized layer of perfluorodecalin liquid based on the SLIPS (slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces) mechanism. This blood repellent material will reduce the damage to RBCs, the activation of platelets, and it will also reduce the forces on the valve leaflet, which in turn, will increase its durability. In addition to the modification of the valve surface, the present proposal aims to modify its architectural design in such a way that it will reduce the jet flow structure and elevated shear stress zones and will also inhibit the formation of recirculation zones. The design of the valve will be carried out in CAD and the valve mould will be generated in a 3D printer, and finally, the valve will be prepared using the compression molding process. The fluid-structure interaction study will be carried out with a blood analogue fluid with the same physical and rheological properties as that of real blood, and the experiments will be performed in a stereo-PIV system. Furthermore, a numerical platform for the simulation of the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) will be developed in the commercial ANSYS Polyflow CFD package. As the blood shows the non-Newtonian viscoelastic property along with the shear-thinning behaviour, the present numerical simulation will take care of it after determining them from the rheological experiments. Thus, both the experimental and numerical investigations all together will give a better scope to design the valve as well as to increase its performance. |