Combination of CFD and DOE to analyze and improve the mass flow rate in urinary catheters.
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.
Frawley
Patrick
P
Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, University of Limerick, Casteltroy, Limerick, Ireland.
Geron
Marco
M
D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012212:Rheology / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014546:Urinary Catheterization / Q000295:instrumentation*; D014554:Urination / Q000502:physiology*