Physical modelling of the cardiovascular system: development of a new simulation system based on hybrid (numerical-hydraulic) components.

Research, education, testing of assist devices and training are among the applications of physical models of the circulation. Unfortunately, they are rather expensive and the scope of their use is structure-dependent as it is not easy to modify them. As numerical models do not have these limitations, our aim is to develop a physical model of the circulation limited to the sections of interest merging them with numerical models representing the remaining parts of the circulatory system. The system under development is therefore a hybrid where physical and numerical sections, merged together, represent the circulatory system. The sections developed till now represent one of the ventricles and part of the arterial tree. This paper is devoted to the description of the hybrid ventricular model and its first applications.