Modeling Flow in a 3D Printed Aorta
Tufts University,Mechanical Engineering Department, Junior Year
Over the summer and first semester of junior year, I conducted flow experiments on a 3D printed human aorta and aortic valves as well as improved their designs in SolidWorks. Multiple valves with different geometries would be required in future experiments, so I remade the valves in SolidWorks such that the geometry could be easily altered. I also changed the connector, which was originally a flange, to an NPT thread which decreased the printing cost and effort required to interchange valves.
The experiments conducted on the model came from a MRI machine which stored velocity data in DICOM files. I wrote a MATLAB script that analyzed the data and visually represented it three different ways: fluid velocity streamlines, a maximum intensity projection,and a video.
Solid Model of Human Aorta
Aortic valves (left) and aortic valve assembly (right)
Streamlines of fluid through the aorta (left) and maximum intensity projection of fluid velocity in the aorta (right)
Video of velocity data as it goes through the aorta model slice by slice
