Dynamic Characteristics of a Mechanical Ventilation System With Spontaneous Breathing

Abstract

Mechanical ventilation is an important and effective method for the treatment of pulmonary diseases patients with spontaneous breathing. Spontaneous breathing refers to the physiological breathing activity caused by the respiratory muscle. These patients retain some ability to breathe spontaneously, but do not reach the level of normal breathing. Mathematical simulation and modeling of the mechanical ventilation system are crucial for research on mechanical ventilation. In this paper, a novel pneumatic model of a mechanical ventilation system considering patients’ spontaneous breathing is presented. Mathematical equations are accurately derived to explain the principles of the respiratory system and mechanical ventilation system. An experimental prototype is designed to confirm the correctness and validity of the pneumatic model. The goodness of fit shows that the mathematical simulation curve fits well with the experimental curve, thus confirming the accuracy of the pneumatic model. For patients with a certain degree of spontaneous breathing, the mechanical ventilation mode is set to the pressure support ventilation (PSV) mode, and variations in the flow, pressure and tidal volume curves are observed by changing specific respiratory mechanics parameters such as the compliance ( $C$ ), the effective area of the throttle in the pneumatic model ( $A$ ), and the muscle pressure difference ( $\Delta P_{\mathrm {mus}}$ ). From the results, it can be concluded that the resistance of the mechanical ventilation system can be equivalent to $A$ . The dynamic characteristics (mainly flow characteristics, tidal volume characteristics and pressure characteristics) of the mechanical ventilation system are directly influenced by variations in $C$ , $A $ and $\Delta P_{\mathrm {mus}}$ . This study is an important reference for setting ventilation levels and ventilator control parameters. The results of this research are valuable for the diagnosis and treatment of respiratory diseases.

Keywords

• Mechanical ventilation
• spontaneous breathing
• pneumatic model
• lung simulator
• dynamic characteristics