A Simple Heart Model Designed to Demonstrate Biological System Simulation

A third-order model of the cardiovascular system which is designed to illustrate biological system simulation to bioengineering students and to introduce the students to a maximum number of analog computer components is described. The extreme simplicity of the model allows the students to concentrate on the simulation and computation without the additional burden of physiological complexity. Heart pumping action is derived from a variable capacitor, and the systemic circulation is modeled as an RC filter. The data obtained from this model show good correlation with observed data. After presentation of this simple model in class, the students are asked to improve the simulation by including any or all of several improvements which are suggested in this paper.