What is the density of the fillable lungs in certain body phantoms?
The fillable lung portions of certain phantom are typically filled with styrofoam beads and water. The degree to which the beads are packed into each lung will determine the density of each lung. Packing less beads in a lung means that more water can be packed in the lung, which means that the relative density of the lung will be higher. (“Fewer beads” means “more water”, and water being more dense than the beads means the overall density is higher). Here is a method for determining the fractional (beads/water) water density: a) Remove all beads (This can be messy). A small hand-held vacuum cleaner with a new (clean) filter bag installed to remove the beads can prove useful for this task, and then measure the lung volumes. b) Refill the lungs with dry beads. c) Add water and record the volume of water added to each lung. The fractional density (relative to pure water) is (neglecting the density of the Styrofoam(TM) beads) equal to about: (Volume of water added) divided by (total lung v
