For the purposes of analyzing the possible impact of external factors on the performance and reliability of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD), a pulmonary simulator (PS) would be critical for in vitro use within a mock circulatory loop (MCL). In order to accurately reproduce the conditions within the pulmonary system, a PS should not only account for the capacity of the pulmonary system to supply flow at given pressures, but also consider the systemic outflow dynamics. This would allow for an accurate pressure and flow rate return feed back into the left ventricular portion of the MCL, i.e. the initial conditions of the left heart. Utilizing Windkessel modeling techniques, a computational model was developed using Simulink® Simscape™ that generates the left atrial pressure (LAP) waveform for given aortic conditions, systemic variables, and pulmonary factors. The adaptability of this model provides the ability to reproduce a wide range of circulatory conditions without the limitations of a dedicated hardware platform. Following a verification and validation (V&V) model, a PID-controlled closed-loop hydraulic system was developed utilizing Simulink® Simscape™. Once this simulation is completed, testing of the PS will be conducted on an MCL. Simulink® Simscape™ was used (1) to control the in silico system during verification studies of the PS and (2) to simulate pulmonary performance for validation of the control architecture used. Verification of the PS performance and validation of the control architecture support this modeling method as an effective means of reproducing pulmonary pressure and systemic outflow.

High performance computing is increasingly common in technological industries and there are many different solutions available on the market. Determining which computing solution is most cost-effective can be difficult. This study outlines the performance between a single-user, traditional high-performance workstation and a multiuser , virtualized workstation. Along with this direct performance comparison, the impacts of virtualization on rendering performance, GPUs, and the technological industry is evaluated in this study. Through the repeated rendering of two different Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models under varying test scenarios, a pool of data including render times and image quality is collected and analyzed. Two phenomena are observed and explained. One is a diminishing return in GPU power output that is observed after allocating four or more GPUs to a single rendering task. The second is a noticeable point of image-noise convergence during a render that could potentially be calculated and exploited to make rendering more time-efficient. These discoveries may impact the effectiveness of virtual GPU scalability and make time-consuming rendering more efficient for industry users. The NVIDIA GRID Visual Computing Appliance (VCA) is found to be cost effective for research laboratories that have several users with diverse needs.