Integrated model of the thermal and respiratory systems of the human body.

Author(s)

Cyro Albuquerque Neto

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola Politécnica (EP/BC)
• Defense date: 2010-12-10

Examining board members

Jurandir Itizo Yanagihara; Marcos Pinotti Barbosa; Maurício Silva Ferreira; Raúl González Lima; Harki Tanaka

• Advisor: Jurandir Itizo Yanagihara

Abstract

The aim of this work is the development of a mathematical model of the human body respiratory and thermal systems. The model allows the determination of the temperature, oxygen and carbon dioxide distributions, depending on the ambient conditions and the physical activity level. The human body was divided into 15 segments: head, neck, trunk, arms, forearms, hands, thighs, legs and feet. Each segment contains an arterial and a venous compartment, representing the large vessels. The blood in the small vessels is considered together with the tissues muscle, fat, skin, bone, brain, lung, heart and viscera. The gases O2 and CO2 are transported by the blood and stored by the tissues dissolved and chemically reacted. Metabolism takes place in the tissues, where oxygen is consumed generating carbon dioxide and heat. The skin exchanges heat with the environment by conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation. The respiratory tract exchanges heat by convection and evaporation. In the lungs, mass transfer happens by diffusion between an alveolar compartment and several pulmonary capillaries compartments. Two different forms were used to model the transport of mass and heat in the tissues. For the mass transfer, the tissues were represented by compartments inside the segments. For the heat transfer, the tissues were represented by layers inside the segments, which have the geometry of a cylinder (circular cross-section) or a parallelogram hands and feet. The regulatory systems were divided into four mechanisms: metabolism, circulation, ventilation and sweating. The metabolism is modified by the shivering (which depends on the body temperature) and the physical activity; the circulation depends on the body gas concentrations, the temperature and the metabolism; the ventilation depends on the gas concentrations; the sweating depends on the temperature. Implicit methods were used to solve the differential equations. The discretization of the partial differential equations was obtained applying the finite volume method. Comparisons with experimental works found in literature show that the model is suitable to represent the exposure to cold and warm ambients, to low amounts of oxygen, to carbon dioxide, and physical activity. Other results of the developed model show that decompression accidents become more severe when associated to low ambient temperatures, because of the increase in the O2 consumption by shivering. The shivering also increases the danger of a CO2 intoxication, due to the increase of its production. The model showed as well the capacity to represent the several interactions between the thermal and respiratory systems, as the decrease of the body temperature because of the increase in the ventilation (which depends on the O2 and CO2 concentrations), or the decrease of the O2 and CO2 partial pressures in the more extreme segments, consequence of the temperature effect on their blood transport capacity. (AU)