Economical oxygen-delivery system.
The conservation of aircraft oxygen supplies is becoming of considerable interest to the Air Force. Onboard oxygen-generating systems are being developed which could support an aircrew if oxygen produced by these systems were used conservatively. These experiments studied the conservation potential of a rebreather bag placed in a vented container near the regulator in an oxygen-delivery system. The bag's volume was close to that of the subject's physiologic dead space. When the subject exhaled, oxygen in the mouth, trachea, and mask dead space went to the rebreather bag, to be rebreathed with the next breath. The CO2-contaminated oxygen from the alveoli was vented to the cabin. The dead-space oxygen could be separated from contaminated oxygen because dead-space air is exhaled first with each breath. When the rebreather-bag volume matched the subject's physiologic dead space so that no CO2 accumulated, a 30% oxygen savings was realized. When the bag was large enough to realize a 50% savings, CO2 accumulation was only 2%.
D001359:Aviation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D010100:Oxygen
D010100:Oxygen