| A majority of heart valve replacement procedures use bi-leaflet mechanical heart valves (MHV). Although these valves function adequately, they require constant anticoagulant therapy to prevent thrombus (clot) formation. Thrombus formation is primarily due to platelet activation, which is caused by nonphysiological flow conditions through MHVs. Blood flow in MHVs can be turbulent, and thus there is a need to better understand both laminar and turbulent flow through MHVs.; In this work, a code for the solution of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations has been extended to include the Streamline Upwind/Petrov Galerkin (SUPG) method and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) for modelling turbulent flows using the constant co-efficient Smagorinsky model. Different numerical tests have been performed to evaluate the validity of the numerical code.; Results from the unsteady turbulent simulation agree qualitatively with computational and experimental studies, indicating that turbulence affects the flow field in the vicinity of the heart valve and should be addressed when modelling blood flow in MHVs. |
