A Compliant Dynamic FEA Model of the Aortic Valve

Abstract—The aortic valve is a compliant biological structure experiencing dynamic cyclic loading. The present study’s aim was to integrate three key physiologically important features into a realistic structural simulation of the aortic valve: compliance of the aortic root wall, non-linear material properties of the tissues, and dynamic loading. Compliance of the root dramatically changed the opening and closing shape and dynamics of the leaflets, altered the diastolic and systolic geometries and helped reduce stresses in the valve. Models of the aortic valve such as this one can provide an increasingly accurate tool in the investigation valve pathologies, device design and modelling robot-tissue interaction in assisted surgery