Oxygenation to bovine blood in artificial heart and lung using vibrating flow pump

We had developed the vibrating flow pump (VFP) for left ventricular assist device based on the fluid dynamical analysis and the animal tests. The main advantages of VFP were generating the oscillated blood flow and having simple mechanical structure. In this study, we constructed an experimental apparatus for a prototype artificial heart and lung by means of installing hollow fibers into the vibrating tube in the VFP. The characteristics of gas exchange were investigated both by experiment using bovine blood and by numerical analysis. The unsteady, incompressible, and axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations and diffusion equation were solved based on finite difference technique. In the prototype VFP, the effect of the oscillated flow on the gas exchange was relatively small in the range of Reynolds number of O (1) - O (1000). Comparing experimental and numerical results, we discussed the validity of the numerical analysis and predicted the characteristics of the VFP. The basic design data of VFP installing hollow fibers were accumulated for the artificial heart and lung.