Geometric optimization of a blood pump impeller using the Taguchi method: CFD analysis and experimental evaluation

Rotodynamic Left Ventricular Assist Devices (LVADs) are critical in managing severe heart failure by providing mechanical circulatory support. Improving these blood pumps' efficiency is crucial for both lowering the device's energy consumption and enhancing patient comfort. In this study, the efficiency of a reference centrifugal blood pump was improved through geometric optimization and validated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experiments. The number of blades, inlet width, outlet width, inlet angle, and outlet angle are among the important impeller parameters that were optimized at three different levels. The orthogonal array of the Taguchi design method was used to reduce the 243 possible configurations from the full-factorial experimental design to 27 trial tests. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the optimal geometric parameters, which led to maximum efficiency after S/N ratios were analyzed using MINITAB-18 software. The performance of the optimized pump was evaluated via CFD at 3300, 3150, and 3450 pump rotation speeds, resulting in a 21% increase in hydraulic efficiency at the design point (5 ​L/min, 3300 ​rpm, and 128.515 ​mm-Hg). Furthermore, experimental results demonstrated reduced power consumption for the optimized pump compared to the reference pump. This study highlights the potential of geometric optimization in advancing the performance of rotodynamic LVADs. • Applied a geometric optimization based on the Taguchi method for a centrifugal blood pump. • Achieved improvements in efficiency, wall shear stress and pressure head compared to the reference pump. • Carried out computational fluid dynamics simulations of the blood pump and validated the results of it with experiments. • Optimized the impeller number, inlet/outlet width, and angles of a blood pump to improve hydraulic performance.