Abstract
Cardiovascular pressure sensors require dedicated, reliable, and customisable performance testing equipment. Devices available on the market, such as pulsatile pumps and pulse multipliers, offer limited adaptability to the needs of pressure sensor testing or are highly complex tools designed for other purposes. Therefore, there is a strong need to provide an adaptable and versatile device for characterisation during prototype development, prior to animal model testing. Early development requires detailed characterisation of a sensor performance in a realistic environmental scenario. To address this need, we adapted an off-the-shelf pressure chamber with a custom Arduino-based controller to achieve a rapid change in pressure that simulates the pulsatile profile of human blood pressure. The system is a highly customisable tool, and we have experimentally shown that it works successfully in a wide range of pressures from 30 mmHg to 400 mmHg with a resolution of 2 mmHg. By adjusting the chamber volume using a water balloon, we achieved a cycle rate of up to 120 beats per minute. The device can be operated directly from the Arduino IDE or with a customised graphical user interface developed by our research group. The proposed system is intended to assist other researchers in the development of industrial and biomedical pressure sensors.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | e00500 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | HardwareX |
Volume | 17 |
Early online date | 12 Dec 2023 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The project was co-financed by the Science Foundation Ireland Research Professorship Award (grant no. 15/RP/2765), the Government of Ireland Disruptive Technology Innovation Fund (grant no. DT20180031A) and the EU-funded SmartShape project (Horizon-CL4-2022-Resilience 01).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
Keywords
- Blood pressure phantom
- Fatigue test
- Pressure controller
- Pulsatile pump
- Pulse duplicator
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Instrumentation
- Mechanical Engineering
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering