Simulating Technology Solutions To Fight Covid-19

Use of engineering simulation technology is common in the global healthcare industry. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) & European regulatory agencies are encouraging the healthcare companies to use Computer Modeling & Simulation (CM&S) to aid the approval process for medical devices and achieve quality by design in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

- Hemant Punekar

Simulations are used for a variety of applications like disinfection of aircraft cabins with UV lights, studying the aerosol to determine social distancing norms, modelling mask for effective usage, designing the negative pressure rooms, designing the ventilators, decontamination of personal protective equipment (PPEs) in UV chambers, modelling mobile COVID-19 sample collection booths, inhalation and drug delivery, scaling up the production of vaccines and medicines etc.

Ventilator design

When the COVID-19 infection spreads to the lungs, the patient often needs to be supported with a ventilator. With an exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 patients globally, we saw an unprecedented demand for the ventilators. Several efforts started worldwide to meet this demand but the key challenges in the design of a ventilator are adequate delivery of air and oxygen to the alveola; efficient extraction of CO2; automating manual resuscitator; lightweight design; reliability; and accurate flow control.