Abstract
The most serious problems related to the cardiovascular prothesis are thrombosis and hemolysis. It is known that the flow pattern of cardiovascular prostheses is highly correlated with thrombosis and hemolysis. Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) is a usual method to get flow pattern, which is difficult to operate and has narrow measure region. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) can solve these problems. Because the flow speed of valve is too high to catch particles by CCD camera, high-speed camera (Hyspeed : Holland-Photonics) was used. The estimated maximum flow speed was 5m/sec and maximum trackable length is 0.5 cm, so the shutter speed was determined as 1000 frames per sec. Several image processing techniques (blurring, segmentation, morphology, etc) were used for the preprocessing. Particle tracking algorithm and 2-D interpolation technique which were necessary in making gridrized velocity pronto, were applied to this PIV program. By using Single-Pulse Multi-Frame particle tracking algorithm, some problems of PIV can be solved. To eliminate particles which penetrate the sheeted plane and to determine the direction of particle paths are these solving methods. 1-D relaxation fomula is modified to interpolate 2-D field. Parachute artificial heart valve which was developed by Seoul National University and Bjork-Shiely valve was testified. For each valve, different flow pattern, velocity profile, wall shear stress and mean velocity were obtained.