A. Shukla and M. Bailey- Van Kuren (USA)
Neonatal Transport, Vibration Isolation, ShockSuppression, Dynamic Modeling
The transportation of neonatal patients with current transport carts exposes the patients to physical shock and vibration. This shock and vibration is often detrimental to the medical condition of the patient. There has been little work done to characterize the dynamics of the transport cart. This paper presents studies performed with simple dynamic models to assist in the design of a shock suppression and vibration isolation system that can be used in existing neonatal transport carts to reduce the motion transmitted to the patient. Studies of three different airspring based systems are modeled and presented. The models vary two types of airsprings in parallel and stand alone configurations. The system dynamics show that effective attenuation of the vibrations can be achieved by the airsprings. The effect of increasing pressure in the airsprings is presented. Furthermore, the pressure in the airsprings and the configuration of the airsprings affect the transport cart system response at low frequencies. Therefore, the dynamic model of the transport cart is a valuable tool in the iterative design process for redesign of the neonatal transport cart.
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