Design and implementation of a mock circulatory system for the evaluation of left ventricular assist devices

Prior to in vivo testing of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) it is necessary to test it in a mock circulatory system (MCS). An MCS should behave much like a cardiovascular system (CVS) in terms of similar physical parameters and operating conditions. The goal of this thesis is to create an MCS that closely mimics the desired impedance and overall layout of a human CVS. This thesis gives an overview of the research, design, testing and implementation stages of the MCS. Experimental data is presented for each component to demonstrate its feasibility to meet the desired performance characteristics. Also, experimental results are described from testing the entire system to evaluate how well the MCS models a human CVS. The end result is a working MCS that can be adapted to any desired testing scenario, each representing a different physiological condition.