RESUMEN
Objective To study CH-VAD blood pump developed by CH Biomedical Inc., a method for estimating the real-time flow of blood pump was established by using the voltage, current, speed, duty cycle, and fluid viscosity as the input data. Methods The blood pump system was disassembled into two modules, the motor and the centrifugal pump. Firstly, the output torque of the motor was calculated according to the voltage, current, speed and duty cycle of the motor, then the relationship between flow and torque at different speeds and viscosities was tested through experiments, and a fitting model was established based on the experimental data. Results The fit goodness of Pump 1 and Pump 2 reached 0.982 6 and 0.982 9,respectively. The fitting parameters were used for verification. When the viscosity changed, the root mean square error for the estimated flow of Pump 1 and Pump 2 was 0.260 and 0.274 L/min, respectively. The fitting parameters and estimated results of the two blood pumps were in good agreement. The flow estimation method could follow the actual flow waveform in real time, and the accuracy of the estimated average flow was not affected by the pulsation. Conclusions The flow estimation method proposed in this paper is suitable for CH-VAD blood pumps. It can accurately estimate the flow of blood pumps in the range of speed 1 600-3 600 r/min, flow 0.4-8 L/min, viscosity 1.2-5 mPa·s, and can follow the flow waveform well under pulsating conditions.