Abstract
The aortic valve separates the left ventricle of the heart from the aorta. The valve sits in the aortic root which comprises three bulges known as sinus of Valsalva or sinus portions. The flow field in the aortic root is dominated by the systolic jet issuing from the valve orifice. It is commonly believed that there is vortical flow in the three sinus portions, which is driven by the central jet, and that this vortical flow establishes a physiological wash-out of the sinus portions in order to prevent blot clot formation.
We will critically review the flow in the aortic root and, in particular, in the sinus portions. Based on experimental data obtained with tomographic PIV, we will quantify the flow field for different aortic root configurations and aortic valve prostheses. This will allow us to study the wash-out mechanism in function of the aortic root morphology and vascular compliance.
Biography
Dominik Obrist holds a degree in mechanical engineering of the ETH Zurich and earned his doctoral degree in 2000 at the Department of Applied Mathematics of the University of Washington (Seattle, USA). From 2000 to 2005, he worked in various positions for the supercomputer company Cray Inc. In 2005, Dominik Obrist returned to academics as a senior researcher (Oberassistent) at the Institute of Fluid Dynamics of ETH Zurich. Next to his work in the fields of aeroacoustics, hydrodynamic stability theory and numerical modelling, he established a research group for biomedical fluid dynamics. In 2011, Dominik Obrist earned the venia legendi (Habilitation) at ETH Zurich with a treatise on the fluid mechanics of the inner ear. In 2013, he was appointed as Professor for Cardiovascular Engineering at the ARTORG Center for Biomedical Engineering Research of the University Bern.
His present research activities encompass several aspects of cardiovascular fluid mechanics (e.g. aortic valves, microcirculation) as well as other biomedical flow systems (e.g. gastric mixing, respiratory flow).