Preliminary measurements of wall shear stress

This paper presents the investigation of wall shear stress of the fluid flo w in the clearance gap between the impeller face and inlet casing of a bloo d pump model. This was accomplished through hot-wire anemometry and rotatin g disk apparatus. The pump assigned was a 5:1 scaled-up model of thr Kyoto- NTN magnetically suspended impeller centrifugal blood pump. Regions of high and low shear stresses were identified. These correspond to spots where li kelihood of hemolysis and thrombus formation are high. The hot-wire probe o rientation was shown to have a significant influence on the wall shear stre ss readings. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.