Design a Heart Valve
Evidence of Work
The design a heart valve project involved many parts, mimicking the true engineering process as much as possible. To begin we did general research on the heart and its different valves. Diagramming out the heart and all of its components as well as a flow chart and description of how blood flows through the organ. Additionally, we learned the equations and graphing involved in finding elasticity.
The next step in the process was testing different potential materials for their elasticity. We took different materials like rubber bands, gloves, and exercise bands for their potential elasticity, trying to find one that is closest to an actual heart valve. We did multiple trials, hanging weights off of them and measuring the change in length, then plugging the information into the equation.
With all of this information, we set off to create a model and test its efficiency. We took a small section of pvc pipe to act as the artery itself and fashioned a valve originally using straws, rubber gloves, hot glue, and a whole lot of tape to create three flaps. While the idea had merit, with the straws holding their shape to create easy flow of water through one side and not the other, the bulk of them, and the fact that the sides of the straw could not be flush against each other meant that there were too many leaks. Also, at the time we only had painters tape which proved inefficiently resistant against the force of water. For our second model we kept our idea of three flaps but replaced them with paper covered in clear tape in order to waterproof it. This allowed the flaps to be stiffer, keeping their shape without the straw lining that caused the leaks. A layer of rubber glove material was connected to each flap and wrapped around the edge of the pvc pipe to create a water tight seal, preventing heaving leaking. This iteration worked more efficiently and we took data surrounding the volume and pressure of water that the mock valve functioned under.
Design a heart valve (Part 3) Steps 3, 4 and 5 - Design and Build your Prototype, Test the Prototypes, rebuild re-test as necessary (Dec 3, 2021 at 11:29 PM).MOVDesign a heart valve (Part 3) Steps 3, 4 and 5 - Design and Build your Prototype, Test the Prototypes, rebuild re-test as necessary (Dec 3, 2021 at 11:29 PM).MOVContent
Aortic Valve: It is located between the aorta and the left ventricle. The valve comprises of three flaps. It opens to allow blood to flow out of the heart from the left ventricle and to the body through the aorta. It prevents back-flow of the blood from the aorta to the left ventricle.
Aorta: The large artery that carries oxygen-rich blood from the left ventricle to other parts of the body.
Force: F=ma - by finding the mass of the water and multiplying it by the acceleration of gravity we found the force, which could then be used to find pressure.
Pressure: F=PA - We used the equation Force = (Pressure)(Area) to find the pressure of the water flowing through the valve.
Reflection
This project was very interesting as it relied on critical thinking heavily, something I think my group and I really excelled at in this situation. To make the prototype valve from scratch we had to think through all the possibilities, sketching them and testing them to find a successful product. This process really put to work our critical thinking and creativity in the best of ways. On the other hand this project really tested our collaboration, with how hard it was to understand and execute it resulted in some arguments and uneven distribution of work. Regardless, I think it was a really good learning experience for our group.