Hundreds of thousands of patients die from heart failure every year. To address this tremendous need, there are a number of medical devices that continue to be developed including artificial hearts, prosthetic heart valves and intra-aortic balloon pumps. All of these devices are developed in the laboratory, preferably with a minimum of costly animal experiments. To facilitate the development of cardiovascular devices and reduce the number of animal experiments, this project seeks to develop software-controlled precision pumps that can simulate a pumping heart, the impedance of a diseased artery or the collapse of a blood vessel under suction. We will develop mathematical models that enable the optimization of pumping systems to match cardiovascular flow; and control algorithms that address the issues of discontinuities associated with physiologic valve closure and pump friction.
