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5.3.2.1 Validation of evaporation rate comparison between steady state and<br />

breath-added flows<br />

Figure 5.34 Experimental setup for evaporation rate comparison between steady flow and breathadded<br />

situation<br />

The setup for comparing evaporation rate is as in Figure 5.34. The comparison<br />

experiment needs two CPAPs placed under the same ambient condition and same<br />

settings. One CPAP is connected to a lung simulator and another has mask sealed and<br />

bias orifice connected so to test its steady state evaporation rate. Such comparison<br />

experiment has been conducted by Sun from Fisher and Paykel Healthcare Co. Ltd.<br />

[67]. He set the CPAPs pressure setting at 10 cmH2O under normal room condition for<br />

4 hours. The lung simulator provided 500 ml normal breath load. The average<br />

evaporation rate in the lung simulator connected CPAP chamber was 9.74 mg/s and in<br />

the bias orifice connected CPAP chamber, it was 9.43 mg/s. The breath-added CPAP<br />

had a 3% higher evaporation rate. The author attributed it to minor leaks in the lung<br />

simulator connected system and concluded that there was no significant difference in<br />

average evaporation between steady state and breath-added situations.<br />

For checking the model, the ambient condition inputs are the same as that of the<br />

experiment and the heating element setting is adjusted at 57°C. The model output steady<br />

state evaporation rate as 9.41 mg/s and the average of the dynamic fluctuating<br />

evaporation rate is 9.36 mg/s. The model gives 0.5% less evaporation rate for the<br />

breath-added situation. This matches well with Sun’s experiment and supports his<br />

explanation.<br />

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