Masters Thesis

Dynamic Modeling and Simulation of Continous Positive Airway Pressure Device

Sleep apnea is a type of sleep disorder that is defined by pauses in breathing. The patients who have sleep apnea suffer from a very shallow breath or they may even stop breathing while they are sleeping. Every pause in breathing may take several seconds to several minutes, and that can happen 5 to 30 times or more in an hour. Pause in breathing causes carbon dioxide to build up in the bloodstream and as which the chemoreceptors will notice. Therefore, the brain sends the signal to wake up the person and breathe. As a result, when the person breathes, then oxygen levels will be reestablished and the person can sleep again. There are two subsets of sleep apnea, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) and Central Sleep Apnea (CSA). The usage of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) devices created for respiratory medicine and in particular sleep apnea treatment is growing along with clinical research. The research suggests that many of the health problems in the modern world are related to the quality of human sleep. The CPAP machine, which is used for sleep apnea treatment, contains three main parts:  A mask that may be placed on the patient's nose and mouth  A hose or tube for connecting the mask to the electric motor  A flow generator that contains a blower and a motor to blow air into the tube Electric motor and its control strategy play a key role in a CPAP device. Designing an optimized control strategy which provides a robust, high dynamic performance and smooth response to the patient is always desirable and needed.

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.