This is totally out of my field, so I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction. I'm with a small company that makes medical devices and I'm looking to see if CFD can help. We want to be able to show the flow of fluid relating to our device and to see the effect that certain modifications would have on that flow.

Does anyone know of a lab or person (preferably in the US) that would be familiar with biomechanics and would be able to take on such a project? You could reply directly to me at: sbixby@montana.com

Thanks so much- Steve

We are doing some medical device consulting, what kind of device simulation are you looking for? And what kind of analysis do you need?

Thanks so much for the reply.

What we're trying to show are the flow patterns of irrigating solutions on the surface of the eye when our device is used. We'd like to see if the irrigant reaches all regions of the eye and conjunctiva, to determine if there are any areas that are missed or where "pooling" might occur, and to see how minor changes (movements of the eyeball, changes in muscle tension, etc.) might affect this flow. Also, if we made minor changes the design of the product, could those change the flow patterns in significant ways?

If it does sound like something that can be done with CFD, you can email me directly at sbixby@montana.com and I can give more details.

Thanks again! Steve

Interesting problem. This sounds like a problem where CFD could be of help. Your problem is difficult though - if I interpret you correctly it is probably a two phase flow (air and liquid on the eye surface) with a free liquid surface, perhaps droplets. I'd also assume surface tension and surface wetting to play important roles - difficult stuff for CFD. Normal bio-CFD guys don't deal with this type of effects (they are probably more used to dealing with blood-flows and complex internal geometries).

If I wanted some advice for this problem I'd contact Flow Science (see www.flow3d.com) - they have very long experience with free-surface flows and are experts at simulating things like ink-jet flows etc where surface tension is important. I'm not affiliated with Flow Science in any way btw.

Good luck.

I'll definitely check with these folks and see what they think. Thank you very much for the lead.

I hadn't thought about surface tension or wetting, but would they be critical once the fluid is flowing? I didn't make this very clear, but I'm more interested in long term irrigation (say irrigating for 30 minutes or more) in which at least 1 liter of fluid would be used, and not the initial flow patterns. And since the eyelids are able to be essentially closed, would that simplify matters--we'd just be looking at what happens to the solution as it moves out of our device, over and around the eyeball, and out between the lids.

Thanks again for the information and I'll see what Flow Science has to say. Steve

Ah, I'm not familar with your application so my first advice might have been a bit wrong then. If your interest is a steady flow between the eye surface and the eyelid then the physics involved are probably as you say more simple - no free surface and less surface tension and wetting effect. You probably don't need Flow Science's free-surface expertise then. Perhaps solid-fluid interaction is important instead, ie the intraction between you irrigation fluid and the eyelid (ensuring that the eyelid does not touch the eye surface but always has a liquid flow in between)? This would make it a bit more tricky. If you don't think that this either is an issue it is probably a fairly simple CFD work.

Without free surface, surface tension and wetting effects you will most likely get good help from most experienced CFD consultants. I'm sure you'll get several offers from your post here.

Good luck once again

take a look at http://www.cfdrc.com/bizareas/biomedlife/

Yea, this is what I meant with my first post - biomed-CFD today is mostly about blood flows and internal flows with complex geometries and a bit airways. Steve's eye application does not sound like a typical biomed CFD problem. Have you done any similar eye/eye-lid irrigation work at CFDRC?

check this out too!!

http://www.mie.utoronto.ca/labs/cfd/...ucomaHome.html