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@PHDTHESIS{Blum:1028362,
author = {Blum, Christopher},
othercontributors = {Steinseifer, Ulrich and Behr, Marek},
title = {{U}ncertainty-aware modeling of hemolysis in rotary blood
pumps using reduced-order models and {B}ayesian parameter
estimation},
school = {Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen},
type = {Dissertation},
address = {Aachen},
publisher = {RWTH Aachen University},
reportid = {RWTH-2026-01581},
pages = {1 Online-Ressource : Illustrationen},
year = {2026},
note = {Veröffentlicht auf dem Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen
University; Dissertation, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische
Hochschule Aachen, 2026},
abstract = {In extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a
life-support therapy used in patients with severe cardiac or
respiratory failure, blood is circulated outside the body
through an artificial circuit that includes a membrane
oxygenator and a rotary blood pump (RBPs). While ECMO can be
life-saving, it exposes blood to artificial surfaces and
elevated mechanical stresses, particularly in RBPs, which
operate under supraphysiological shear conditions and are a
primary source of red blood cell (RBC) damage. A key
complication is shear-induced hemolysis, the mechanical
destruction of RBCs in high-shear blood flows. This damage
releases hemoglobin and contributes to adverse events such
as thrombosis, inflammation, and organ dysfunction. To
better understand and reduce hemolysis, numerical models
have become an essential tool in the design and evaluation
of blood-contacting devices. However, current in-silico
approaches face major limitations. They are computationally
expensive, often lack validation against clinical data, and
typically neglect biological and experimental variability.
As a result, their ability to reliably predict hemolysis
across realistic clinical conditions remains limited. The
overarching aim of this dissertation is to develop a
computationally efficient, uncertainty-aware in-silico
framework that can predict hemolysis across the full
clinical operating range of RBPs and explicitly account for
key sources of uncertainty. To make large-scale predictions
feasible, a reduced-order model was developed based on
non-intrusive polynomial chaos expansion. This approach
enables rapid yet accurate simulation of flow conditions
across the entire clinical operating space. Building on
this, stress-based hemolysis predictions were validated to
in-vivo data from 580 ECMO patients. While the results
showed good agreement with cohort-level trends, they also
revealed substantial inter- and intra-patient variability,
pointing to the limits of purely mechanical models. To
investigate the source of this variability, a controlled
experimental study was conducted using a custom-built
shearing device. Repeated hemolysis measurements under
identical conditions showed unexpectedly high intra-donor
variability, challenging assumptions underlying standard
calibration practices and highlighting inherent uncertainty
in experimental data. To address this, a Bayesian parameter
estimation framework was introduced that incorporates this
variability directly into model calibration. The resulting
probabilistic model provides not only hemolysis predictions
but also quantified uncertainty, increasing robustness,
interpretability, and credibility in both clinical and
regulatory contexts. Together, these contributions help to
establish a more comprehensive framework for hemolysis
modeling by combining computational efficiency, clinical
validation, and uncertainty quantification. Building on this
foundation, future applications such as in-silico clinical
trials or patient-specific modeling across diverse patient
conditions may become more feasible.},
cin = {811001-4 ; 923710 / 416010},
ddc = {620},
cid = {$I:(DE-82)811001-4_20140620$ / $I:(DE-82)416010_20140620$},
pnm = {DFG project G:(GEPRIS)467133626 - Strömungsinduzierte
Hämolyse in blutführenden Medizinprodukten – ein
datenbasierter mechanistischer Ansatz (467133626)},
pid = {G:(GEPRIS)467133626},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)11},
doi = {10.18154/RWTH-2026-01581},
url = {https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/record/1028362},
}