A research on the effects of +gz acceleration on lung diffusion capacity

• Main Author: Muhammad Taufiq Bin Hawazi.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/47723
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Earlier years of research on GLOC were focussed on cardiovascular responses in high acceleration environment where cerebral blood flow and pressure were the main determinants of GLOC. However in the past years, there has been growing research which demonstrates that cerebral oxygen content can be a feasible predictor of GLOC within a certain percentage error. Hence the author decided to focus his research on improving the accuracy of using cerebral oxygen content as a determinant in +Gz studies by investigating factors affecting oxygen transport in the circulatory system leading to the brain. It was determined that blood flow and lung diffusion capacity were the two factors most likely to affect oxygen transport in +Gz stress. A theory was proposed that by finding out the relationship of diffusion capacity in lung under +Gz acceleration, it would be possible to produce more accurate models to measure changes in cerebral oxygen content under +Gz stress. Not only will the model be able to make accurate estimations in cerebral oxygen content, it would also provide a more complete description of the physiological effects of increased +Gz stress. The aim was to use diffusion capacity as a variable in a model to determine GLOC based on cerebral oxygen levels. Such a model is predicted to provide more accurate and complete description of the physiological effects of increased +Gz acceleration. An attempt was made to construct a mathematical model to demonstrate the effects of +Gz on diffusion capacity to improve the accuracy of GLOC predictive models which uses cerebral oxygen content as a determinant. However, due to lack of information on lung diffusion capacity under +Gz acceleration conditions, the model could not be completed. The author believes that even though the attempt to build a model which incorporated lung diffusion capacity as a variable in +Gz studies was unsuccessful, it is not a clear result or indication that the theory suggested by the author is invalid.