3D Printed Force Transducers for In-Vitro Mitral Valve Chordae Tendineae Force Measurements

Mitral valve surgery is incredibly prevalent in the United States with more than 40,000 mitral valve surgical procedures annually. Improving the imaging techniques used to diagnose these cases requires validation of 3D models through experimental data such as mechanical properties of the tissue. An essential part of this process for the mitral valve is measuring the force experienced by chordae tendineae. This has been achieved with brass force transducers but using a 3D printed design can have many benefits. In this study, 3D printed miniature c-shaped force transducers comparable to previous metal models were designed and created using Solidworks 2016. Static force simulations were conducted in Solidworks and interpreted using Finite Element Analysis software within Solidworks. Forces typically experienced by the mitral valve (0.2N-1.5N) were applied and resultant strain was measured. The transducer frames experienced 83.23με-624με on the inner face of c-shape and 55.4με-415.5με on the outer face of the c-shape. This indicated a strain range of about 0.7% which is well within the range of the selected strain gauges for this application. The 3D printed design achieves similar strain range experienced at regions of strain gauge application and is faster and relatively easy to produce.