Variable-Sized Gas Accumulator for Ventilator Mixture Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Medical ventilators face challenges in quickly changing gas mixtures to patients without introducing undesirable pockets of air, which disrupt the desired gas concentrations, and current monitoring technologies are expensive and inaccurate for measuring gas mixtures in accumulators.
Innovation Solution
A medical ventilator system with a variable-sized accumulator, a dip-tube, and an active purge valve, along with a sampling chamber, is used to control gas flow rates and pressures, reducing burping and enabling precise measurement of gas mixtures by controlling the accumulator's volume and purging old gas mixtures efficiently.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If the accumulator is removed from the gas flow path (T configuration), then the time to deliver gas mixture changes is reduced, but air pockets periodically enter the flow path disrupting gas concentrations
Solution Approach 1:
The accumulator is divided into multiple chambers (first chamber and second chamber) separated by a valve. The first chamber remains in the gas flow path while the second chamber is removed from it. This segmentation allows the system to benefit from both configurations: the first chamber prevents air pockets from entering the flow path, while the second chamber enables rapid gas mixture changes without disrupting patient delivery.
Solution Approach 2:
The valve acts as an intermediary between the first chamber (in flow path) and second chamber (out of flow path). By controlling valve operation, the system can selectively connect or disconnect chambers from the gas flow path, enabling rapid gas mixture changes while maintaining continuous prevention of air pocket formation in the patient delivery line.
2Quantity of substance
If the accumulator volume is large, then gas mixture storage capacity is sufficient, but the time to replace old gas mixture with new gas mixture increases
Solution Approach 1:
The accumulator is segmented into multiple chambers that can be independently controlled. When gas mixture changes are required, the valve isolates the first chamber from the second chamber, allowing the second chamber to be rapidly purged and refilled without affecting the first chamber's supply to the patient. This enables rapid gas mixture replacement while maintaining sufficient total storage capacity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares for rapid gas mixture changes by having the second chamber ready to be quickly purged and refilled. The valve can rapidly switch between chambers, and the second chamber can be pre-filled with new gas mixtures, enabling fast response to changing patient requirements without waiting for the entire accumulator to exchange gas.
3Ease of operation
If gas pressure in the accumulator is high, then delivery control of respiratory gas is improved, but direct measurement of gas mixture concentrations becomes prohibitively expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The valve system acts as an intermediary that enables sampling of gas mixtures at controlled conditions. By controlling valve operation, the system can direct gas samples from the accumulator to monitoring devices at appropriate pressures, making it feasible to use less expensive monitoring technology while maintaining high pressure storage for good delivery control.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes systems and methods for ventilating a patient with a system that includes an accumulator for storing a gas mixture. The disclosure further describes a novel approach for a fast delivery of a change in gas mixture to a patient by utilizing a variable-sized accumulator.