Measurement of Tip Trajectories in the Cardiac Reentry

Reentrant impulse in the myocardium is considered to be a major factor promoting electrophysiological abnormalities or even leading to ventricular tachycardias (VTs) and ventricular fibrillations (VFs). Tip trajectory of the reentrant wave can reflect stability of the electrical propagation and area of the reentrant movement, thereby being considered as one of the most concerned parameters in studying electrical activities during VT/VF. The purpose of the present study is to propose a practical method to find out tip trajectories using a computational approach. In this study Luo-Rudy 1991 mathematical model of the ventricular cell was used. The operator splitting method was utilized to integrate the partial differential equations in the two-dimensional tissue. And spiral waves were initiated by the cut wave front technique. Through experiments we found it was difficult to find out the tips by finding intersection of the two isovoltage lines as proposed in most papers. Therefore, we suggested that tip points were detected by seeking the shortest distance of the two adjacent isovoltage contour lines. The results showed that tip trajectories of these spiral waves found in our way were very near to the tips observed, implying validation of our method in measuring tip trajectories in cardiac reentry.

EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF TIP CLEARANCE FLOW FOR AN AXIAL FLOW FAN ROTOR

The flow field in the tip region of an axial ventilation fan is investigated with a particle image velocimeter （PIV） system at the design condition. Flow fields with three different tip clearances are surveyed on three different circumferential planes, respectively. The phase-locked average method is used to investigate the generation and the development of a tip leakage vortex. The result from PIV system is compared with that from a particle dynamics anemometer（PDA） system. Both data are in good agreement and the structure of the tip leakage vortex for the rotor is illustrated. The characteristic of a leakage vortex is described in both velocity vectors and vortical contours. The unsteadiness of the leakage vortex and the position of the vortex are surveyed in detail, which interprets the discrepancy between the numerical simulation and PDA experimental results to a certain extent. The center loci of tip leakage vortex at different times and the mean center loci of the leakage vortex are displayed particularly. Finally, the trajectories of the tip leakage vortex by the experimental measurement are compared with predictions from the existing models for high speed and high-pressure compressors and turbines when appropriately interpreted. A good agreement is obtained.