The effect of bileaflet mechanical heart valve designs on biomechanical behaviours - a finite element analysis

Abstract

Heart valve replacement is a popular treatment modality for patients with valvular heart disease. One of the prominent issues of mechanical heart valve is blood clotting around the valve that could lead to operation failure. Different valve design affects the valve structural behaviour differently which could be associated to the valve leaflet movement and its attachment to the housing. This study aimed to analyse the stress and total deformation of a fixed and expandable heart valve designs under a closed and opened leaflet conditions using three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis (FEA). Geometrical valve models were created in SolidWorks 2020 and then exported into Ansys 2022 R2. All models were assigned with linearly elastic, isotropic, and homogenous properties. A pressure of 16 kPa was applied on the top (closed condition) and bottom (opened condition) surfaces of the leaflets. The results exhibited that the expandable design recorded about 98% and 8.6% higher stress than the fixed design under the closed and opened conditions, respectively. The expandable valve was also observed to generate approximately 186% and 182% greater total deformation compared to the fixed valve under the closed and opened conditions, respectively. Of the valve designs evaluated, the fixed valve was found to be more satisfactory. However, the expandable valve could also be of interest with relevant modifications imposed if the adverse functionality impacts are concerned.