Study of Respiratory System Response During Decompression of a Pressurized Compartment.

Abstract

The paper presents a solution for modeling the dynamics of human gas ex-change indicators in space flight based on a static model of the respiratory sys-tem, taking into account the peculiarities of gas exchange process. The paper also describes a computational experiment which was carried out to simulate indicators during ascent, demonstrating the capabilities of the model to predict the state of the respiratory system. The simulation results show that a decrease in the total barometric pressure leads to the respiratory capacity changes: the volume of the alveolar space decreases and the tidal dead space volume in-creases in the ratio from 4.7 to 0.7. A noncompensated respiratory alkalosis leading to the acid-base disorders develops as well. The computational experi-ment applied under the considered methodological approach allows studying the problems related to the flight safety and risk management under various operating modes of life support systems.