Does anyone have an opinion on which CFD package (Fluent? CFX? ACE? some other?) is the best for modeling heart valves?

A colleague of mine did so with what is now CFX a few years back for her PhD. I'm sure I've seen CFX applied to other kinds of artery/blood modelling.

We have done extensive analysis of mechanical and bioprosthetic heart valves at CFDRC. Look at: http://www.cfdrc.com/datab/Applicati...ed/biomed.html

The web page is somewhat dated--if you'd like, we can discuss the current status of heart valve research at CFDRC.

-John

Do you want to simulate the moving of the valve or not.

A coupled simulation (fluid structure interaction) was presented at the StarCD users meeting last year.

If you only want do do a modelling with a fixed grid then most codes should be able to solve this problem easily.

Joern

(http://www.beilke-cfd.de)

Yes, I would be interested in the interactions as the valve opens and shuts, as well as varying the amount that the valve opens to simulate valve disease (e.g. stenosis).

As you are in the US you should contact Adapco (www.adapco.com). They should have the handouts from the 1997 European StarCD Users Meeting. The title should be something like "Transient calculation of the flow in a Butterfly Valve"

This case was presented from some people who work at Sulzer Innotec / Switzerland.