Thesis
Sparger design as a critical component of a military field-deployable autotransfusion system
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2015
- Thesis identifier
- T14219
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201454566
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- Uncontrolled haemorrhage is the primary cause of combat-related death, with most injured patients dying before reaching a medical facility. Most deaths due to haemorrhage occur within 10 minutes, and volume expanding fluids carried by field medics can be detrimental in cases involving massive blood loss. Currently the military utilises blood banking and buddy systems for whole blood transfusion; however the donor is limited to light duty post-donation, and whole donor blood is a limited resource. An ideal fluid resuscitation technique would involve autologous blood transfusion taken directly from a haemorrhaging wound. Current autotransfusion systems are not field-deployable due to size and electrical power requirements, and the larger project goal is to develop a field-deployable military autotransfusion system which is lightweight, compact, and manually operable. Beyond this project remit, a hand-crank pump has been developed to extract blood from the wound and transmit a blood-air mixture to a collection bag for initial blood processing. The current project aim is to design and fabricate a technology allowing the collection bag to remove air from the blood and filter larger sediment using a defoamer and filter sock device. This bag-attached flow device needs to (1) hold the defoamer and filter in place, (2) slow incoming fluid velocity, (3) disperse flow across the inner surface of the sock, and (4) direct flow without inducing haemolysis. A hemispherically-shaped sparger mechanism was developed over multiple design iterations to slow and radially disperse the flow. Hoods were used to hold the vertically hanging sock away from the sparger and assist in directing flow. Following a series of design modifications and laboratory testing, a successful design iteration was devised which acceptably slows flow and disperses it outward in all directions; future alterations and testing will be performed to improve flow direction and evaluate complete system functionality.
- Resource Type
- DOI
- Date Created
- 2015
- Former identifier
- 1247839
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