Flow-driven opening of a valvular leaflet

The understanding of valvular opening is a central issue in cardiac flows, whose analysis is often prohibited by the unavailability of (in vivo) data about tissue properties. Asymptotic or approximate representations of fluid–structure interaction are thus sought. The dynamics of an accelerated stream, in a two-dimensional channel initially closed by a rigid inertialess movable leaflet, is studied as a simple model problem aimed at demonstrating the main phenomena contributing to the fluid–structure interaction. The problem is solved by the coupled numerical solution of equations for the flow and solid. The results show that the leaflet initially opens in a no-shedding regime, driven by fluid mass conservation and a predictable dynamics. Then the leaflet motion jumps, after the saturation of a very rapid intermediate vortex-shedding phase, to the asymptotic slower regime with a stable self-similar wake structure.