Cardiocirculatory Pump with Curved Flow Path
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cardiocirculatory assistance devices suffer from blood swirls and turbulence, leading to increased risks of clot formation and hemolysis, and are often difficult to implant due to size and weight constraints, which can result in blood stagnation and adverse hematic health effects.
Innovation Solution
A device with a compact, simplified structure featuring a rigid central body and flexible membranes that utilize a pulsatile flow mechanism, with a circular clear space and strategically angled ports to promote laminar blood flow and reduce stagnation zones, made from materials compatible with the human body.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If floppy membranes are used for pumping, then the device can be compact and flexible, but blood swirls and turbulence increase leading to clot formation and hemolysis
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs curved and rounded internal geometries within the pumping chamber rather than sharp angles or flat surfaces. The blood flow path is designed with smooth transitions and curved surfaces that guide blood flow laminarly, preventing turbulence and stagnation zones where clots could form. This curvature principle maintains compact device size while eliminating harmful blood flow patterns.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent optimizes specific geometric parameters of the pumping chamber and blood flow path, including angle measurements (e.g., 45-degree angles for blood entry/exit paths) and dimensional ratios that ensure smooth blood flow transitions. These parameter changes transform the blood flow from turbulent to laminar, preventing clot formation while maintaining device compactness.
2Reliability
If complex structures are used to prevent blood stagnation, then blood flow improves, but device size and implantation difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The pumping chamber is divided into functionally distinct zones with optimized geometries for different flow stages: an expansion zone for blood intake, a contraction zone for blood ejection, and transitional zones with specific angular geometries. This segmentation allows each zone to perform its function efficiently with simple geometric forms, achieving reliable blood flow without increasing overall device complexity or size.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses smooth curved surfaces and rounded transitions throughout the blood flow path, eliminating sharp corners and flat surfaces that would create stagnation zones. The blood flow path follows a curved trajectory with optimized radius of curvature, ensuring laminar flow and preventing blood pooling while maintaining a compact device footprint suitable for implantation.
3Manufacturing precision
If rigid structures are used to define pumping chambers, then manufacturing precision improves, but device weight and implantation ease deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs thin-walled flexible membranes to form the pumping chambers instead of heavy rigid structures. These flexible shells are engineered with precise geometric contours that define the blood flow path and chamber volumes. The thin-walled construction dramatically reduces device weight while the precision-molded geometries ensure accurate chamber dimensions and smooth blood flow transitions, achieving both manufacturing precision and weight reduction.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device achieves a physiological pulsatile blood flow, reduces production costs, and facilitates easier implantation, including pediatric use, by minimizing blood stagnation and cellular trauma, while ensuring safe and efficient blood circulation.
Implementation Method 1
The first and second chambers are supplied with a gas or gaseous fluid alternatively under pressure and depressurization, that is to say alternatively with positive pressure and negative pressure, so as to alternately draw the membranes reciprocally near and apart
Implementation Method 2
a pair of membranes (17, 17') made of a membrane material which is a flexible material... so as to alternately draw the membranes reciprocally near and apart to decrease and increase respectively the volume of the clear space performing a pumping action
Data Source
AI summary
A device for cardiocirculatory assistance constituting a pump for a blood flow includes a body, a pair of covers, and a pair of membranes. The device is provided with a circuit for the passage of a gas or gaseous fluid alternatively under pressure and depressurization so that a reciprocating pumping motion of the membranes is established.