How our design works:
My group and I chose to follow the design of an already efficient heart valve. The design consisted of a small circular opening with a cage on the other end. A ball would then be placed in the cage so that it could freely move back and forth but not side to side. Unfortunately we had little supplies to replicate this design so our product had to be improvised. Instead of a solid ball we were stuck using a wooden ball. The cage was instead replaced with a wider tube of bamboo. To simulate the opening and closing of the valve, we attached a string to the end of the ball that we pulled back and forth. The ball would then either allow the blood to flow through or stop it from being able to.
My group and I chose to follow the design of an already efficient heart valve. The design consisted of a small circular opening with a cage on the other end. A ball would then be placed in the cage so that it could freely move back and forth but not side to side. Unfortunately we had little supplies to replicate this design so our product had to be improvised. Instead of a solid ball we were stuck using a wooden ball. The cage was instead replaced with a wider tube of bamboo. To simulate the opening and closing of the valve, we attached a string to the end of the ball that we pulled back and forth. The ball would then either allow the blood to flow through or stop it from being able to.
Reflection:
This was an interesting project. While the project felt a little distant from our goal of creating our capstone project, it was still interesting to learn about. We were able to use the skills we were taught this year in engineering and refine the skills that we learned during sophomore year in biotech. However, I don't think we successfully improved the heart valve. Ours still works to certain degree but it is not efficient.
This was an interesting project. While the project felt a little distant from our goal of creating our capstone project, it was still interesting to learn about. We were able to use the skills we were taught this year in engineering and refine the skills that we learned during sophomore year in biotech. However, I don't think we successfully improved the heart valve. Ours still works to certain degree but it is not efficient.
The young's modulus, also known as the elastic modulus, is used to determine the stiffness of a solid. It helps to measure the relationship between stress and strain within an object. We determined it by first tying a weight to the bottom of our ribbon. We used the weight to measure the amount of stretch the ribbon would give. We then plugged in the numbers we had into the young's modulus equation. We calculated it out to be 4919.4 N/cm^2.