Mechanical Engineering – mechanics of a

heart valve & design of a prosthesis

Daniel M Espino
CEng, CBiol
Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Engineering

School of Engineering,
University of Birmingham
Biography

• BSc & PhD: Aberdeen

• Engineering, University of Birmingham

• School of Engineering, University of Auckland

• Medical Technology Laboratory, Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute

Research: Biomedical Engineering

• Medical Device Development

• Natural & Synthetic Biomaterials

Teaching

School of Engineering

• Mechanics (year-1)

• Computational Fluid Dynamics (year-3)

• Biomedical Engineering (year-4)

Introduction
Aim:
outline basic concepts around the material properties of natural heart valves, link this to the
mechanics of a natural heart valve, and subsequently engineering Design (via assignment).

Learning outcomes:
- demonstrate knowledge of the basic anatomy/physiology of a heart valve
- demonstrate understanding of the basic concepts of mechanics
- outline the link between material properties and mechanical behaviour
- assess the design of an existing medical device
Cardiovascular system
Simply: Pump & tubes But: Cardiovascular disease is
Biggest cause of mortality world-wide
Right side Left side
Right side Left side

Pulmonary vein
Vena cava
tricuspid valve
Mitral valve

Atria Atria

Ventricles
Ventricles

pulmonary
valve

aortic valve Pulmonary artery Lungs

Body Aorta
clear
zone
Rough zone &
free edge
Papillary
muscle
clear
zone
Rough zone &
free edge
Papillary
muscle
Mechanics-1 Syllabus
• Vectors (dot product), kinematics – displacement, velocity and acceleration

• Newton’s laws of motion: momentum (including collisions) and force (including friction)

• Work, power, kinetic and potential energy

• Centre of mass

• Motion in a circle – torque (cross product), moment of inertia (parallel/perpendicular axis theorem)

• Equilibrium & simple machines

• Mechanics of materials – stress (including shear), strain, elastic moduli, strain energy, torsion of
shafts, plastic bending

• External & internal forces (uniformly distributed & linearly varying forces)

• Pin-jointed trusses

• Statically determinate & indeterminate problems

• Deflections of beams

• Discontinuous bending moment functions

Mechanics of materials
Rigid vs Strong

▪What is stress & strain ?

Mechanics of materials
How do objects deform?

Axial Shear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pP48_CcDls
Mechanics of materials
But it is a little more complicated…

Poisson’s ratio,

Radial strain,
Longitudinal strain,
Mechanics of materials
And a little more complicated…
Mechanics of materials
Von Mises Stress…
Mechanics of materials
Visco-elasticity
Mechanics of materials
Visco-elasticity
Mechanics of materials
Mechanics of materials
Mechanics of materials
Collagen mechanics
Mechanics & the mitral valve
Strain energy based function for hyper-elasticity
Strain energy based function for hyper-elasticity
𝑁 𝑁
1
𝑈 = ෍ 𝐶𝑖𝑗 𝐼ഥ1 − 3 𝑖 𝐼ഥ2 − 3 𝑗 + ෍ 𝐽 −1 2𝑖
𝐷𝑖 𝑒1
𝑖+𝑗=1 𝑖=1
Strain energy based function for hyper-elasticity
𝑁 𝑁
1
𝑈 = ෍ 𝐶𝑖𝑗 𝐼ഥ1 − 3 𝑖 𝐼ഥ2 − 3 𝑗 + ෍ 𝐽 −1 2𝑖
𝐷𝑖 𝑒1
𝑖+𝑗=1 𝑖=1
1950s current day
Summary

Natural heart valves are passive, responding to fluid flow

Their mechanical behaviour, which is determined by their

structure, enables blood to flow through the heart and to the body

Prosthetic heart valves aim to replicate function

Task
Assignment:
• Your task is to produce a Graphical Abstract focused on evaluating
the following:
o 'design and mechanics of a prosthetic heart valve'.
• You should include 3 bullet points, which identify key parameters
for a 'Product Design Specification' (PDS) for the specific device.
• You are free to analyse the prosthetic heart valve (or valve
deployment system) of your choosing. That said, some devices will
be highlighted during the session, which you are otherwise
welcome to focus on.
• Please note that a graphical abstract should include figures, labels
and annotations as appropriate.
• This is an open assignment, and there is no single 'right' answer.
• Please submit this as a pdf file to CANVAS.
 Conclusion

Mechanical Engineering:

mechanics, engineering design, functional products

with moving parts (e.g. prosthetic devices)