3-D Vortex Simulation of Accelerating Flow Over A Simplified Opening Bileaflet Valve

A fast, parallel Lagrangian vortex method, Ω-Flow, is developed for the grid-free Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of unsteady incompressible flow about 3-D moving objects. The latter is used to simulate external flow over a simplified model of a St. Jude Medical bileaflet mechanical heart valve. In this model, the freestream is accelerated from zero to peak Reynolds number 5,000 using a physiologically realistic velocity waveform; while, simultaneously, the valve leaflets are rotated with a parabolic angular velocity waveform from “closed” to “open” positions. This paper briefs the numerical methodology, as well as partial results from the convergence study.