Modeling and Simulation of Respiratory System in Design of Mechanical Ventilators

Abstract

Respiratory system modeling has been widely studied for a long time. Different types of models have been developed for different purposes. Review of the modeling literature reveals that there are two major motivations for the research in modeling of respiratory system. Physiologically based respiratory control system models get substantial academic attention in the fields of life sciences, physiology, and biomedical engineering. Those models attempt to include relevant known physiological features for the purposes of study or simulation some specific aspects of the human respiratory systems. In this sense, a model that provides more details of the respiratory system related to blood gas exchange, storage, metabolic activity, and brain neural central controller are mainly the focus. The majority of models utilize the form of compartmental models, e.g., the lung compartment, the tissue compartment, and the brain compartment (Batzel, et al 2007). Some simplified models may adequately describe the clinical behavior in disease, or reduced model parameters which are important for monitoring or treatment in health care units may be more interested by physiologists or respiratory therapies.