Preliminary measurements of gap velocity of a blood pump model

The paper presents the gap velocity measurements of a 5:1 enlarged blood pump model at operating condition. Both the radial and tangential velocity at the gap between the impeller and pump casing of a centrifugal blood pump are presented. The results showed that the tangential and radial velocity increased with the increase of radii. The vector plot of the resultant velocity showed that there was a good washout in the clearance gap. These have suggested that hemolysis and thrombus formations are minimal and hence the pump is able to function nominally efficient as compared to other centrifugal pumps.