Document Type
Article
Original Publication Date
2008
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Modelling and Simulation in Engineering
Volume
2008
DOI of Original Publication
10.1155/2008/358748
Date of Submission
September 2014
Abstract
Better understanding of stresses and flow characteristics in the human airways is very important for many clinical applications such as aerosol drug therapy, inhalation toxicology, and airway remodeling process. The bifurcation geometry of airway generations 3 to 5 based on the ICRP tracheobronchial model was chosen to analyze the flow characteristics and stresses during inhalation. A computational model was developed to investigate the airway tissue flexibility effect on stresses and flow characteristics in the airways. The finite-element method with the fluid-structure interaction analysis was employed to investigate the transient responses of the flow characteristics and stresses in the airways during inhalation. The simulation results showed that tissue flexibility affected the maximum airflow velocity, airway pressure, and wall shear stress about 2%, 7%, and 6%, respectively. The simulation results also showed that the differences between the orthotropic and isotropic material models on the airway stresses were in the ranges of 25–52%. The results from the present study suggest that it is very important to incorporate the orthotropic tissue properties into a computational model for studying flow characteristics and stresses in the airways.
Rights
Copyright © 2008 Kittisak Koombua and Ramana M. Pidaparti. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Is Part Of
VCU Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Publications
Comments
Originally published at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2008/358748