A comparison of hemodynamic performance in mehcanical and biological heart valve prostheses

Heart valve prostheses are used to replace heart valves in patients afflicted with valvular heart disease. The malfunctioning heart valve adversely affects the fluid mechanical performance. While the choice of mechanical VS biological valve prostheses is dependent on the patient, the biological valves should have improved hemodynamic performance compared to the mechanical valves. This work focused on CFD analysis of the Starr-Edwards caged ball valve and a biological valve and serves to validate the improved hemodynamics of the latter valve in comparison to the former. Commercial CFD software (CFD-GEOM, CFD-ACE, CFD-VIEW) are used for the analys is. The main results are: Smaller pressure drop across the biological valve compared to the Starr- Edwards valve, smaller downstream turbulent kinetic energy production in the biological valve compared to the Starr-Edwards valve, and smaller shear stress associated with the biological valve compared to the Starr-Edwards valve