Case Study: Sunshine Heart achieves optimized C‑Pulse pump design and improved long‑term fatigue performance with Dassault Systemes (SIMULIA Abaqus)

Sunshine Heart Optimizes Unique Pump Device Design with Abaqus FEA from SIMULIA

Sunshine Heart developed the novel C‑Pulse cuff — an external, non–blood‑contacting pump that inflates a balloon around the aorta to assist heart function — and faced a major design challenge: the polymer balloon must survive extreme cyclic loading (≈42 million inflation cycles per year) and be optimized for strength, flexibility and implantability. To move beyond empirical build‑and‑test and accelerate development, Sunshine Heart turned to Dassault Systemes’ SIMULIA Abaqus/Standard finite element analysis (FEA) software for a computational approach.

Using Dassault Systemes’ Abaqus/Standard, Matrix Applied Computing modeled the cuff, balloon and aorta with hyperelastic (Ogden) material models, selected appropriate element types and ran quarter‑model parametric and snap‑through simulations to optimize balloon shape and thickness. Abaqus FEA predictions closely matched test data, delivered a first‑pass design solution that scales to multiple sizes, and has been proven in continuous durability testing — reducing lead time, increasing confidence in long‑term fatigue performance, and enabling a validated C‑Pulse design ready for further development.

Sunshine Heart

Don Campbell

Principal Engineering Analyst