MATERIALS SUITABLE TO SIMULATE SNOW DURING BREATHING EXPERIMENTS FOR AVALANCHE SURVIVAL RESEARCH

Authors

  • Karel Roubík Department of Biomedical Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kladno, Czech Republic http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5813-6355
  • Simon Walzel Department of Biomedical Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kladno, Czech Republic
  • Lenka Horakova Department of Biomedical Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kladno, Czech Republic
  • Alicia Refalo École polytechnique universitaire de l'université Lyon-I, France
  • Karel Sykora Department of Physiology and Biochemistry, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; Military Department, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Vaclav Ort Department of Biomedical Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Kladno, Czech Republic
  • Ladislav Sieger Department of Physics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14311/CTJ.2020.1.05

Keywords:

avalanche snow, breathing, hypercapnia, snow model

Abstract

Terrain experiments for avalanche survival research require appropriate snow conditions, which may not be available year round. To prepare these experiments and test the protocol, it might be advantageous to test them in a laboratory with a snow model. The aim of the study was to find a material that can be used to simulate avalanche snow for studying gas exchange of a person covered with avalanche snow. Three loose porous materials (perlite, wood shavings and polystyrene) were tested in two forms—dry and moisturized. Each volunteer underwent six phases of the experiment in random order (three materials each dry or moisturized) during experimental breathing into the tested materials. Physiological parameters and fractions of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the airways were recorded continuously. All the materials selected as possible models of the avalanche snow negatively affected gas exchange during the breathing of the volunteers in a very similar extent. The time courses of the recorded parameters were very similar and were bordered from one side by the wet perlite and from the other side by the dry perlite. Therefore, other tested materials may be substituted with perlite with and appropriate water content. From all the tested materials, perlite is the best to simulate avalanche snow because of its homogeneity, reproducibility and easy manipulation.

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Published

2020-03-31

Issue

Vol. 50 No. 1 (2020)

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Karel Roubík, Simon Walzel, Lenka Horakova, Alicia Refalo, Karel Sykora, Vaclav Ort, Ladislav Sieger

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