Combination of CFD and DOE to analyze and improve the mass flow rate in urinary catheters

P. Frawley, M. Geron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The urinary catheter is a thin plastic tube that has been designed to empty the bladder artificially, effortlessly, and with minimum discomfort. The current CH14 male catheter design was examined with a view to optimizing the mass flow rate. The literature imposed constraints to the analysis of the urinary catheter to ensure that a compromise between optimal flow, patient comfort, and everyday practicality from manufacture to use was achieved in the new design. As a result a total of six design characteristics were examined. The input variables in question were the length and width of eyelets 1 and 2 (four variables), the distance between the eyelets, and the angle of rotation between the eyelets. Due to the high number of possible input combinations a structured approach to the analysis of data was necessary. A combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and design of experiments (DOE) has been used to evaluate the "optimal configuration." The use of CFD couple with DOE is a novel concept, which harnesses the computational power of CFD in the most efficient manner for prediction of the mass flow rate in the catheter.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Biomechanical Engineering
Volume131
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01 Aug 2009

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