Numerical simulations of high-frequency respiratory flows in 2D and 3D lung bifurcation models

Siva Parameswaran, Zixi Chen, Shamini Parameswaran, Yingying Hu, Zhaoming He, Rishi Raj

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

To better understand the human pulmonary system and optimize the high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) design, numerical simulations were conducted under normal breathing frequency and HFOV condition using a CFD code Ansys Fluent and its user-defined C programs. 2D and 3D double bifurcating lung models were created, and the geometry corresponds to fifth to seventh generations of airways with the dimensions based on the Weibel's pulmonary model. Computations were carried out for different Reynolds numbers (Re = 400 and 1000) and Womersley numbers (α; = 4 and 16) to study the air flow fields, gas transportation, and wall shear stresses in the lung airways. Flow structure was compared with experimental results. Both 2D and 3D numerical models successfully reproduced many results observed in the experiment. The oxygen concentration distribution in the lung model was investigated to analyze the influence of flow oscillation on gas transport inside the lung model.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)337-344
Number of pages8
JournalInternational Journal of Computational Methods in Engineering Science and Mechanics
Volume15
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 4 2014

Keywords

  • CFD
  • Gas transport
  • HFOV
  • Lung bifurcation model

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