Actively Breathing Mechanical Lung Simulator Development and Preliminary Measurements

Abstract

The active mechanical lung simulator iLung 2.1 provides the possibility of simulating physiological human breathing patterns. The simulator can be used for assessing the environmental impacts as well as the inhaled aerosols with respect to the used lung equivalents, like latex bags and primed porcine lungs, whose anatomical properties are similar to the human lung. The progress in development of the iLung 2.1 and a comparison of the simulator test measurements with preliminary spirometry measurements is presented. The simulator is controlled by a cRIO system. This setup allows to control the simulation settings in real-time. Data for iLung 2.1 test measurements were taken by using a certified medical spirometer. Measurements were conducted in two simulation modes using two different lung equivalents. The iLung 2.1 measurements were compared with human spirometry measurements. Results show similarity between breathing patterns simulated by iLung 2.1 and normal human breathing allowing further validation and possible research applications.