Laminar/turbulent airflow and microsphere deposition in a patient-specific airway geometry using an open-source solver
by Mayank Vaish; Clement Kleinstreuer; Arun V. Kolanjiyil; Nadish Saini; Narasimha R. Pillalamarri
International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology (IJBET), Vol. 22, No. 2, 2016

Abstract: Using the open-source software OpenFOAM as the solver, airflow and microsphere transport have been simulated in a patient-specific lung-airway model. A suitable transitional turbulence model was validated and implemented to accurately simulate airflow fields, as the laryngeal jet occurring in the throat region may induce turbulence immediately downstream. Furthermore, a modified eddy interaction model with a generalised near-wall correction factor is presented that more accurately simulates the particle trajectories and subsequent deposition phenomena which are especially affected by near-wall velocity fluctuations. Particle depositions in the realistic lung-airway configuration are compared with those in an idealised upper airway model. The results indicate that for microsphere deposition in turbulent airflow regions, selection of an appropriate near-wall correction factor can reduce the problem of subject variability for different lung-airway configurations. Open-source solvers for lung-aerosol dynamics simulations, such as OpenFOAM, are predictive tools which are basically cost-free, flexible, largely user-friendly, and portable.

Online publication date: Wed, 14-Sep-2016

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