The Impact of Rotor Axial Displacement Variation on Simulation Accuracy of Fully Magnetic Levitation Centrifugal Blood Pump

The rotor axial displacement of the full magnetic levitation blood pump varies with the operating conditions. The effect of rotor axial displacement on simulation results is unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of rotor axial displacement on the predicted blood pump flow field, hydraulic performance, and hemocompatibility through simulation. This study used the CentriMag blood pump as a model, and conducted computational fluid dynamics simulations to assess the impact of rotor displacement. Considering rotor axial displacement leads to opposite results regarding predicted residence time and thrombotic risk compared with not considering rotor axial displacement. Not considering rotor axial displacement leads to deviations in the predicted values, where the effects on the flow field within the blood pump, ratio of secondary flow, and amount of shear stress >150 Pa are significant. The variation in the back clearance of the blood pump caused by the ideal and actual rotor displacements is the main cause of the above phenomena. Given that the rotor axial displacement significantly impacts the simulation accuracy, the effect of rotor axial displacement must be considered in the simulation.