Publication detail

Numerical investigation of inspiratory airflow in a realistic model of the human tracheobronchial airways and a comparison with experimental results

ELCNER, J. LÍZAL, F. JEDELSKÝ, J. JÍCHA, M. CHOVANCOVÁ, M.

Original Title

Numerical investigation of inspiratory airflow in a realistic model of the human tracheobronchial airways and a comparison with experimental results

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

In this article, the results of numerical simulations using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and a comparison with experiments performed with phase Doppler anemometry are presented. The simulations and experiments were conducted in a realistic model of the human airways, which comprised the throat, trachea and tracheobronchial tree up to the fourth generation. A full inspiration/expiration breathing cycle was used with tidal volumes 0.5 and 1 L, which correspond to a sedentary regime and deep breath, respectively. The length of the entire breathing cycle was 4 s, with inspiration and expiration each lasting 2 s. As a boundary condition for the CFD simulations, experimentally obtained flow rate distribution in 10 terminal airways was used with zero pressure resistance at the throat inlet. CCM+ CFD code (Adapco) was used with an SST k- low-Reynolds Number RANS model. The total number of polyhedral control volumes was 2.6 million with a time step of 0.001 s. Comparisons were made at several points in eight cross sections selected according to experiments in the trachea and the left and right bronchi. The results agree well with experiments involving the oscillation (temporal relocation) of flow structures in the majority of the cross sections and individual local positions. Velocity field simulation in several cross sections shows a very unstable flow field, which originates in the tracheal laryngeal jet and propagates far downstream with the formation of separation zones in both left and right airways. The RANS simulation agrees with the experiments in almost all the cross sections and shows unstable local flow structures and a quantitatively acceptable solution for the time-averaged flow field.

Keywords

Human lungs; Realistic tracheobronchial airways; Airway model; Tracheobronchial tree; Upper airways; Oscillatory flow; Waveform inspiration; Numerical simulations; Phase Doppler anemometry

Authors

ELCNER, J.; LÍZAL, F.; JEDELSKÝ, J.; JÍCHA, M.; CHOVANCOVÁ, M.

RIV year

2015

Released

1. 4. 2016

Publisher

Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Location

Berlin

ISBN

1617-7959

Periodical

Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology

Year of study

15

Number

2

State

Federal Republic of Germany

Pages from

447

Pages to

469

Pages count

23

URL

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10237-015-0701-1

BibTex

@article{BUT117291,
  author="Jakub {Elcner} and František {Lízal} and Jan {Jedelský} and Miroslav {Jícha} and Michaela {Chovancová}",
  title="Numerical investigation of inspiratory airflow in a realistic model of the human tracheobronchial airways and a comparison with experimental results",
  journal="Biomechanics and Modeling in Mechanobiology",
  year="2016",
  volume="15",
  number="2",
  pages="447--469",
  doi="10.1007/s10237-015-0701-1",
  issn="1617-7959",
  url="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10237-015-0701-1"
}