Computer and Experimental Modelling of Blood Flow through the Mitral Valve of the Heart

Abstract

This paper reports the first steps in determining the effects of fluid flow on the performance of the mitral valve of the heart that is relevant to surgical repair of the valve. In this paper, blood flow in idealised two-dimensional models of the mitral valve was studied using a numerical fluid-structure interaction (FSI) and experimental models and an experimental problem designed to validate the computational model. Both the experiments and simulation predicted a large vortex behind the anterior leaflet during inflow of blood into the left ventricle, in agreement with MRI scans available in the literature. Leaflet deformations agreed with results from experiments in the literature and with our previous experimental results.

Keywords

• mitral valve
• fluid-structure interaction modelling
• biomechanics
• flow visualisation