Objective To investigate the circulatory supporting effect of the third generation fully magnetically levitated China Heart ventricular assist device (CH-VAD) under heart failure (HF) condition. Methods An in vitro mock circulatory system (MCS) was developed. This system could simulate a healthy adult under resting state and a patient with heart failure, and incorporate the CH-VAD to evaluate the assisting performance under continuous flow mode. Furthermore, CH-VAD was equipped with a pulsatile flow controller and its initial performance was accessed. The pulsatile mode was obtained by using sinusoidal velocity waveform of the pump which synchronized the CH-VAD with the ventricle simulator of the MCS. Results CH-VAD under continuous flow mode could recover the hemodynamic parameters (arterial pressure and cardiac output) under HF condition to normal range. Preliminary pulsatile test results showed that amplitude of current pulse speed had a minor influence on the hemodynamic performance. CH-VAD under continuous flow and pulsatile flow mode could obtain comparable mean arterial pressure, systolic arterial pressure, diastolic arterial pressure and mean flow. Conclusions CH-VAD can generate a certain degree of speed pulse via appropriate pulsatility control, so as to provide sufficient support on ventricular function. Further optimization on pulsatile controller of CH-VAD is required to conform to natural physiology. The developed MCS can be utilized as an effective and controllable in vitro platform for design, optimization and verification of VADs or other mechanical circulatory support devices.