Design of a breathing simulator generating adult and pediatric patterns

Abstract

In this thesis, a mechanical breathing simulator is developed, constructed, tested and calibrated for the experimental use of medical devices such as nasal drug products, nebulizers and inhalers. The aim of the simulator is to protect users from inhaling hazardous materials, and also performance of the simulator is not a ected by the users' breathing conditions. In order to increase reliability, the simulator has di erent ow pattern capabilities to match di erent devices.The design of the simulator uses a mechanical air piston, which is air thigh, controlled by a program for creating di erent types of volume- ow diagrams in order to be applicable for di erent breath patterns.Volume control, sine ow and sine volume breath patterns are programmed and the user can choose any of them with the desired volume for each.These ow patterns can provide relative comparison of individual respirators by measuring the performance under the same breathing conditions, which gives better results for repeatability.The calibration and testing of the simulator has completed by connecting to a ow measuring device in lab. The tests are done to measure the volume error between input volumes set by user and output volumes provided by the simulator. Also respiratory rates, inhalation time, exhalation time and inhalation to exhalation ratios are measured. Test results showed that the simulator for volume; gives minimum 0,04 % error and maximum 3,52% error respectively, also for the respiratory rate minimum 0,67 % error and maximum 5,44% error was calculated . Also a test was completed according to EN 13544 to measure aerosol output of Omron A3 nebulizer. Aerosol output of nebulizer was measured as 0,25 ml. The study showed that, the simulator can be used for testing nebulizers, CPAP devices and also inhalers and nasal drug products.|Keywords : Breath, Simulator, Volume, Flow, Breath Pattern, Nebulizer, CPAP.