LAUSR

BACKGROUND Computational fluid dynamics has been widely used to assist the design and evaluation of blood pumps. Discretization errors associated with computational grid may influence the credibility of numerical simulations. Non-conformal grid interfaces commonly exist in rotary machines, including rotary blood pumps. Should grid size across the interface differ greatly, large errors may occur. METHODS This study explored the effects of non-conformal grid interface on the prediction of the flow field and hemolysis in blood pumps using large eddy simulation (LES). Two benchmarks, a nozzle model and a centrifugal blood pump were chosen as test cases. RESULTS This study found that non-conformal grid interfaces with considerable change of grid sizes led to discontinuities of flow variables and brought errors to metrics such as pressure head (7%) and hemolysis (up to 14%). CONCLUSIONS The results on the full unstructured grid are more accurate with negligible changes of flow variables across the non-conformal grid interface. A full unstructured grid should be employed for centrifugal blood pumps to minimize the influence of non-conformal grid interfaces for LES simulations.