Publication Abstract
Effects of Non-planarity on Secondary Flows in the Small Bronchial Tubes (Abstract Only)
Soni, B., Lindley, C., & Thompson, D. (2007). Effects of Non-planarity on Secondary Flows in the Small Bronchial Tubes (Abstract Only). Journal of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences . 71st Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, Mississippi State, MS: Mississippi Academy of Sciences. 52(1).
Abstract
Laminar flow in the small bronchial tubes, characterized by a Reynolds
number range of approximately 100 to 1000, is quite complex due to the
presence of vortex-dominated secondary flows that play a critical but
poorly understood role in the filtration of entrained particles from
inhaled air. Contributing to the complexity of the problem is the
geometry of the bronchial network, which contains nonplanar,
multi-generational branching. The out-of-plane branch angles are
randomly distributed in a manner that allows the bronchial
network to fill the space available in the chest cavity without
intersections. In this paper, we present the results of computational
fluid dynamics simulations for steady-state inhalation flow in four
three-generation geometries. Since the branching angles are randomly
distributed in, we limit this study to only cases for which the
branching occurs in the plane perpendicular to the previous branch or
the plane of the previous branch. Various fluid dynamical properties
are employed to describe the differences between the flows.