Analysis of the thermodynamic performance of the human respiratory system: a comparative study of patients subject to COVID-19 with uninfected individuals

• Grant number: 20/12290-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2021
• End date: February 28, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Thermal Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady
• Grantee: Ingrid Rossilho Casale
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica (FEM). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Second Law of Thermodynamics and exergy analyses have several applications in traditional engineering processes in which energy conversion occurs. In the last decades, a peculiar sort of the use of these has appeared, which would be the employment of the human body and its subsystems, aiming thus to obtain the quality of the energy conversion processes of healthy human beings and human beings subjected to a given pathology. Given this, this scientific initiation work aims to modify the phenomenological model of the respiratory system introduced in the literature to consider the physiological changes associated with COVID-19 contamination. These analyses will make it possible to compare energy performance in both conditions (healthy and unhealthy), aiming to contribute to the medical field through thermodynamic optics. (AU)