Estudio de una válvula pinch fabricada en una impresora 3d para ser utilizada en dispositivos de ventilación mecánica compartida

NIGRO NORBERTO; PAIRETTI CESAR; CARDONA ALBERTO; BURBRIDGE HORACIO; EPELE MARIA; RAVICULE MARCELA; SCIAMARELLA DENISE; GARCIA EIJO PEDRO; D'ADAMO JUAN; DURIEZ THOMAS; CABALEIRO JUAN MARTIN; BIANCHETTI ARTURO; ARTANA GUILLERMO

Resistencia, Chaco

Congreso; MECOM 2021; 2021

AMCA

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on the urgency and available resources, hospitals ofdifferent countries have had to search for solutions to face a circumstantial shortage of ventilators. Sharing ventilationdevices involves several risks that require further investigation to ensure the safe use of this technique.This strategy can be implemented employing pinch valves that control the air flow-rate by compressing a flexibletubing to modify its cross-section locally and produce a constriction.This work presents a comprehensive study to gain physical insight into the different phenomena associatedwith locally reducing the cross-sectional area of a medical-grade tubing to control the air-flow at oscillatingpressure regimes. On one hand, this manuscript presents experimental data and numerical simulations on the tubingdeformation problem. These results show that silicone rubber hoses can be deformed to generate the requiredconstrictions without compromising their integrity. Regarding fluid mechanics, we measured the pressure drop andflow-rate through a pinch valve connected to a standard ventilator under several working regimes. This experimentaldata was then used to validate a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model for the steady-state conditions. TheCFD tool then allowed us to study the transient regimes with more detail, observing the behavior of the flow throughthe constriction.We believe the reported results establish scientifically-based guidelines for the secure use of shared ventilationdevices, should the need arise.