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Heat Power and Flow Calculation

A project log for OpenFluidWarmer

a safe, low-cost IV fluid warmer solution; for when commercially available IV fluid warmers are too expensive or cannot be sourced

john-opsahlJohn Opsahl 06/22/2020 at 17:330 Comments

A quick calculation shows that the maximum possible IV fluid flow rate with two 100W heaters (at 85% heat transfer efficiency) is approximately 80mL/min. This assumes that the blood product enters at 4degC (typical whole blood and packaged red blood cell storage temperature) and leaves at 39degC. 

Assuming the electronics consume an additional 12W of power, I arrive at a duration between battery charges of approximately 1 hour for a typical 12V, 45Ah car battery at a 17.7A discharge rate (based on the lead acid battery voltage curves I found online). At 80 mL/min, it is theoretically possible to warm thirteen 350mL units of blood product before the battery needs to be recharged.

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