The Effect of Different Protection Level on Pilots’ Respiratory and Cardiovascular System

Abstract

The continuous positive-pressure ventilation and the pressure suit are the most commonly performed to protect pilot from hypoxia in high altitude flights, which may affect both pilots’ respiratory and cardiovascular system. Nevertheless, most studies did not discuss the influence of respiratory system. To investigate the physiological response of high-flight protection when respiratory system and cardiovascular system are both considered, the couple of respiratory mechanics model and multi-unit lumped parameter cardiovascular system model was established. The numerical simulation results demonstrated the significant changes in human respiratory and circulation systems under different protection levels, and the intrapleural pressure increase significantly with the increase of ventilation pressure. The mean arterial pressure (MAP) increase linearly and the cardiac output (CO) decrease with the increase protection level. The model is validated with experimental data on the ground.