Most of us take breathing for granted, taking around 17 to 23,000 breaths per day, mostly without any conscious effort. Right now, some, mostly elderly and infirm patients infected with COVID-19 have significant issues breathing and are struggling staying alive.
Not only do patients come in a variety of shapes and sizes (morphology), but they also breathe in a variety of ways: some people are “mouth breathers”, some are “nose breathers”, most of us breath using a combination of both. In addition, each patient has a unique breathing profile, that depends on their lung function and structure, that also needs to be accounted for.
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation of a Vyaire respiratory mask and...
Vyaire respiratory mask on a real patient morphology
Vyaire Medical, is a global market leader in healthcare technology, providing a comprehensive line of respiratory products serving the smallest neonate to the largest adult patient, manufactures and markets more than 25,000 unique products for the diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of respiratory conditions in every stage of life.
“Traditionally we were forced to use simplified models the development of a respiratory mask. We would have used a simplified head model for our CFD simulations, with idealized breathing holes for the nose and the mouth,” says Vyaire Medical’s Dr. Christian Varga, Senior Engineering Fellow and Senior Director of Research and Development. “Today we are using scans of actual human heads – different morphologies of actual patient features”.
“When it comes to respiratory simulation we incorporate lung structure and volume using a variety of breathing profiles,” Dr. Varga explains. “We are starting to build a library of patient morphologies, which already consists of representative patient geometries for all of the patient populations: adult, paediatric and infant”.
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation showing oxygen delivery for a light mouth breather
Simcenter STAR-CCM+ simulation showing oxygen delivery for a a heavy breather with mouth and nose
“Having the capability to develop a digital twin of our products using Simcenter allows us to significantly reduce development times by removing the time-consuming process of building and testing physical prototypes. So, early on in our development cycles for a new product, we are trying to achieve feasibility goals, being able to work inside of the simulation, instead of building expensive prototypes, shortens the time cycles and makes things move much quicker”.
The biggest benefit Dr. Varga believes Vyaire Medical realized from using Simcenter STAR-CCM+ is time. “We can make products much quicker”, he says, “and that of course is very important in today’s environment”.
The story of Vyaire began in the 1950s on two different continents. In the U.S., Forrest Bird invented and refined the mechanical ventilator. Nearly concurrently in Germany, Erich Jaeger developed what would become the first complete laboratory for pulmonary function testing and diagnostics.
Today, unified as a singular company, Vyaire Medical operates facilities around the world to manufacture and market more than 25,000 unique products for the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of respiratory conditions in every stage of life.
Vyaire Medical (International)
March 2020
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