Simulation of the Respiratory CO2 Concentration with a Blower-Based Lung Simulator

Abstract

Mechanical ventilation has become one of the most widely used life-supporting techniques in the world, providing a proper gas exchange even if the patients breathing is impaired. To verify the functions of these ventilators during development, bench tests, such as lung simulators, offer a wide range of test functionalities. Therefore, a simulator has to provide realistic features of the lung, including the ability to reproduce the varying gas concentration (physiological capnogram) at its interfaces. This paper presents the implementation of a gas mixing unit into an open blower-driven lung simulator to reproduce the respiratory CO₂ concentration of a patient.