DEA based neonatal lung simulator

摘要

To reduce the likelihood of ventilator induced lung injury a neonatal lung simulator is developed based on Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs). DEAs are particularly suited for this application due to their natural like response as well as their self-sensing ability. By actively controlling the DEA, the pressure and volume inside the lung simulator can be controlled giving rise to active compliance control. Additionally the capacitance of the DEA can be used as a measurement of volume eliminating the integration errors that plague flow sensors. Based on simulations conducted with the FEA package ABAQUS and experimental data, the characteristics of the lung simulator were explored. A relationship between volume and capacitance was derived based on the self sensing of a bubble actuator. This was then used to calculate the compliance of the experimental bubble actuator. The current results are promising and show that mimicking a neonatal lung with DEAs may be possible.