Evaluation On The Application Effect Of New Military Individual Oxygen Machine Based On Membrane Air Separation Technology

Medically, the area in which the altitude is more than 3000 m is called plateau. On plateau, as the altitude increases, air pressure gets lower and lower, oxygen partial pressure is also reduced, which can easily lead to human hypoxia and cause high altitude sickness. Because of the unique circumstances, effects of high altitude sickness on the combat effectiveness of troops have been the focus of high altitude medical research in China. For a long time, the PLA attaches great importance to the research and development of anti-hypoxia equipment. At present, the "pressure swing adsorption oxygen generator with filling station", "Field oxygen generation vehicle" and large number of oxygen devices have already fitted out in high-altitude army, which have largely solved the peacetime oxygen problems. However, the wartime oxygen problems, which need high mobility, have remained unresolved for the reason that a portable and individual oxygen device still does not exist!Bearing this in mind, we designed an experiment on the basis of the previously custom-made small membrane oxygen machine. The subjects were asked to stay in a low-pressure chamber to simulate high-altitude environment with or without the membrane oxygen machine. The elevation-flow-concentration relationship was studied by adjusting these three parameters in order to reveal the potential effects of hypobaric and hypoxia environment on the oxygen machine performance in details. Combined with self-controlled experiments, effects of the oxygen machine were evaluated before the optimization of parameters and improvement of machine structure. The results could lay the foundation for an improved version of this device to be fitted out for troops as soon as possible.The main research contents are as follows:1. Design and develop a small plateau environment simulation chamber, to simulate the low-pressure, low-oxygen environment, which can detect the parameters of the military individual oxygen machine at different altitudes rapidly.2. Simulate altitude of 3000 m, 4000 m and 5000 m in a small simulated hypobaric chamber respectively, to detect oxygen concentration and flow rate of the military individual oxygen machine at each altitude.3. Simulate altitude of 4000 m in a small simulated hypobaric chamber, through self-controlled experimental design, to investigate the change of SD rats’ behavior indexes before and after using military individual oxygen machine under the low-pressure, low-oxygen environment.4. Simulate altitude of 4000 m in a large simulated hypobaric chamber, call for volunteers, through self-controlled experimental design, to detect arterial blood gas indexes such as PH value, partial pressure of oxygen(Pa O2), partial pressure of carbon dioxide(Pa CO2), bicarbonate(HCO3-), the total amount of carbon dioxide(TCO2) and arterial oxygen saturation(Sa O2) in order to evaluate the application effect of the military individual oxygen machine under hypobaric and hypoxia oxygen environment.5. Simulate altitude of 5000 m in a large simulated hypobaric chamber, call for volunteers, to investigate two projects “target tracking” and “digital searching” before and after using individual oxygen machine, through self-controlled experimental design, to evaluate the impact of the military individual oxygen machine on brain-body efficacy.The results showed that:1. The new military individual oxygen machine, had stable performance, was easy to use, produced enough oxygen flow to meet individual requirements and could produce oxygen with stable concentration.2. After using the military individual oxygen machine, horizontal activity in rats significantly had no obvious change(P>0.05), vertical activity increased(P<0.01), which suggests that the instrument can significantly improve the behavior indexes of rats, and enhance exploration and cognitive abilities.3. After using the military individual oxygen machine under simulated altitude of 4000 m, TCO2 and HCO3- in volunteers did not changed significantly(P>0.01), indicating that the body CO2 emissions within the normal range and the instrument will not cause low carbonate acidosis and respiratory alkalosis, and that confirms the safety of this device; PCO2 decreased, but only slightly(P>0.01), indicating that the instrument may induce a modest increase the hypoxic ventilator response under hypoxic environment, the body compensatory capacity increased, which will help high altitude acclimatization; arterial Pa O2 and Sa O2 increased significantly(P<0.01), illustrating that oxygen in the blood significantly increased after using the instrument, which can provide more oxygen to all tissues and organs, showing that anti-hypoxia effect is obvious.4. After using the military individual oxygen machine under simulated altitude of 5000 m, performance test scores in volunteers improved significantly(P<0.01), indicating that the machine can improve the operating efficiency of the body under hypobaric and hypoxia oxygen environment.