An electric model with time varying resistance for a pneumatic membrane blood pump.

To investigate the effects of an artificial heart and cardiac assist device on the cardiovascular system and determine the proper control method, an electrical model is an effective tool. An electric model with time varying resistance is proposed to represent a pneumatic membrane blood pump, by which the resistance of the valves in the pump is a function of time. The model is consistent over the whole cardiac cycle, and the important transitional processes between systole and diastole are considered. The calculated results based on this model are compared with the experimentally measured waveforms of the corresponding state-variables of a loaded pump, and the model parameters estimated using the least-squares criterion are compared with the measured physical values of corresponding functional parts. Results showed that this electric model is capable of representing a pneumatic membrane pump with quite satisfactory accuracy. They also showed that the transitional property of the valve resistance has a significant influence on the output characteristics of the pump.