FLOW VISUALIZATION STUDY ON CENTRIFUGAL BLOOD PUMP USING A HIGH-SPEEDVIDEO CAMERA

Flow visualization is widely applied to evaluate rotary blood pumps; h owever, it is very difficult to visualize flow near the vanes of centr ifugal blood pumps because the rotational speed of the impeller is usu ally several thousand rpm. In this study, a tracer method with a high speed video camera that can take more than 2,000 frames/s was utilized for flow visualization together with computer-assisted image measurem ent. This method visualized the complex secondary flow pattern near th e vanes of the impeller, such as the vortex and recirculation. It also visualized the enhanced washout effect by the secondary washout vanes on the backside of the impeller. The proposed method was effective to analyze the flow pattern in the centrifugal blood pump by providing u seful information for better design of the pump hemolysis and thrombus formation.