Performance study of the aortic valves with abnormally thickened leaflets during systole

Abstract

Utilizing numerical simulation, this study investigated the performance of aortic valves with abnormally thickened leaflets during the systolic phase of the cardiac cycle. The method used coupled computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis simulations to solve flexible structures interaction with surrounding fluid flow in the valves. The valve model was developed with a valve height of 10 mm, a free edge angle of 0 degrees, a leaflet thickness of 0.2 mm and a valve radius of 23.5 mm. Different cases of valve diseases were considered, including cases involving one thickened leaflet and cases involving two thickened leaflets. In these studied cases, the thickness of the diseased leaflet or leaflets was thicker than that of a normal one by 50 %, 100 % and 150 %, respectively. High shear stresses were discovered during leaflets acceleration period along with big leaflets distortions for all six diseased valve models. The diseased valve with 150 % thicker leaflets experienced a shear stress of up to 98.6 Pa that could disrupt the functions of the valve and therefore lead to severe problems of the cardiovascular system.