ABSTRACT
Numerous electrical analog models of the circulatory system have been proposed. However, conventional models are either too simple, focusing exclusively on heart function, or overly complex, characterizing arteries in excessive detail. The vessel beds, which comprise arteries, capillaries and veins, are well known to be responsible for most of the pressure drop in blood pressure and to dominate the draining of blood flow. Consequently, electrical analog models of the circulatory system should pay more attention to the vessel beds. This investigation divided the arterial system into several aortic segments with vessel beds, and proposed a model that used electrical lumped elements to represent the vessel beds. The model was adopted to simulate blood pressure propagation by considering each vessel bed as an isolated subsystem. The transfer function between the terminals of isolated subsystems was used to identify the electrical components of the lumped elements that characterized the vessel beds. Simulation results reveal that the compliance and impedance of the vessel beds are larger than in previous models that focused on the aorta or arteries. The proposed electrical lumped model could deal with much more information than the simple models due to the lumped element structure. Furthermore, its isolated subsystem approach also makes the proposed model significantly easier to use than the complex models.
