A Smart Box for Blood Bags Transport: Simulation Model of the Cooling Autonomy Control System

This paper faces the topic of blood products transport by applying simulation, control and data exchange technologies in order to implement a safe and efficient integrated transportation system. As known, the bio-chemical properties of blood and its derivatives are subjected to deterioration whenever a well determined temperature range is not respected for an excessive time interval. At present, blood products are mainly transported in thermally insulated boxes filled with ice which, other than ensuring a limited time of the material survival, are not able to allow any type of control over the state of the material and the history of temperature variations occurred within the storage volume. The innovative proposal discussed in this paper regards a smart box for blood transport, equipped with a system for temperature control which uses elements of eutectic material stored in a separated compartment; eutectic exchanges heat with the transported blood bags through a separation wall on which blowers are installed for cold air circulation. The air flow is activated as soon as the box internal temperature increases over a pre-defined threshold, to extend as much as possible the eutectic material duration. The smart box is equipped with sensors that dialogue by cloud with a central server on which is installed a Matlab-Simulink dynamic simulator of the box thermodynamic behavior, main object of the present paper. In particular, the simulator here presented has been improved by advanced heat exchange correlations and a more realistic system of thermal balance equations. The simulator allows to monitor the time remaining to the exhaustion of the cooling effect. In case of lack of autonomy, a logistic algorithm provides the coordinates of the nearest healthcare location for safe storage