The paper describes the role of computational fluid dynamic when designing a new component for haemodialysis bloodline.
As a first phase, CFD is used to compare possible different design solutions: velocity and pressure fields, fluid path lines, fluid mixing and blood stress are analyzed to give absolute and comparative evaluation of different design.
In the product development phase, CFD is also used when performing risk analysis: possible failure modes are analyzed to quantify the severity of their effects. This preliminary computational evaluation allows anticipating as much as possible the evaluation of unacceptable effects, reducing the risk for patients and the cost necessary to discover them in verification and validation phase.
CFD results are finally compared and analyzed with data obtained from experimental tests during verification phase in order to perform the fine tuning of the computational model used. |
