Polydisperse Aerosol Transport and Deposition in Upper Airways of Age-Specific Lung

Mohammad S. Islam, Puchanee Larpruenrudee, Sheikh I. Hossain, Mohammad Rahimi-Gorji, Yuantong Gu, Suvash C. Saha and Gunther Paul
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Mohammad S. Islam: School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Puchanee Larpruenrudee: School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Sheikh I. Hossain: School of Life Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Mohammad Rahimi-Gorji: Department of Human Structure and Repair, Ghent University, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
Yuantong Gu: School of Mechanical, Medical and Process Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia
Suvash C. Saha: School of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia
Gunther Paul: Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4810, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 12, 1-17

Abstract: A comprehensive understanding of airflow characteristics and particle transport in the human lung can be useful in modelling to inform clinical diagnosis, treatment, and management, including prescription medication and risk assessment for rehabilitation. One of the difficulties in clinical treatment of lung disorders lies in the patients’ variable physical lung characteristics caused by age, amongst other factors, such as different lung sizes. A precise understanding of the comparison between different age groups with various flow rates is missing in the literature, and this study aims to analyse the airflow and aerosol transport within the age-specific lung. ANSYS Fluent solver and the large-eddy simulation (LES) model were employed for the numerical simulation. The numerical model was validated with the available literature and the computational results showed airway size-reduction significantly affected airflow and particle transport in the upper airways. This study reports higher deposition at the mouth-throat region for larger diameter particles. The overall deposition efficiency (DE) increased with airway size reduction and flow rate. Lung aging effected the pressure distribution and a higher pressure drop was reported for the aged lung as compared to the younger lung. These findings could inform medical management through individualised simulation of drug-aerosol delivery processes for the patient-specific lung.

Keywords: airway reduction; aging; particle transport; LES; drug-aerosol delivery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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