Particle imaging velocimetry measurements in a heart simulator

In vitro experiments are often unable to reproduce all the complexities of biological flows observed in vivo. The in vitro models are often rigid, use Newtonian fluids, and/or some ideal geometry tested under ideal physiological parameters. The study presented in this article describes the in vitro assessment of mitral prosthetic heart valves in a setup able to simulate the pulsatile blood flow in a model of the left heart with moving walls. The specific laboratory mockup built for these experiments consists in a Dual Activation Simulator (DAS) that provides a realistic simulation of the atrial and ventricular flow in anatomically shaped silicone models cavities. This mockup, initially designed for ultrasonic velocity measurements took recently advantage of the use of particle image velocimetry. We present here some aspects of flow visualization and phase averaged two-dimensional PIV measurements which can provide new insight in the interaction between the flow dynamics and the heart valves.