Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of the Air Flow Through the Children Respiratory Tract

Lattice Boltzmann Simulation of the Air Flow Through the Children Respiratory Tract

Paper in proceedings (conference paper)

Aerosol particles like dust involved in the air can pass through the respiratory tract and can be de- posited there. The long-term deposition of fine solid particles in the lower airways can stimulate lung diseases. In contrary, for the healing of certain lung diseases, the delivering of medicament’s to the lower airways is important. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) enables to simulate the flow field and the particles deposi- tion in the lungs. By this method, it is possible to identify the probability of reaching particles into the lower airways through the tracheo-bronchial tree. In this paper, the flow field in the child lungs (5-year-old) in a constant sedentary breathing regime was simulated using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with the LES Smagorinsky turbulence model. To verify the calculated velocities by LBM in OpenLB software, the finite vol- ume RANS simulation in Star-CCM+ was performed. The results showed the good agreement in the upper part of the airways. Some discrepancies were found in the lower part. Nevertheless, LBM and OpenLB were proven to be a capable tool to solve the air flow through the respiratory tract and will be used for particle deposition.

Aerosol particles like dust involved in the air can pass through the respiratory tract and can be de- posited there. The long-term deposition of fine solid particles in the lower airways can stimulate lung diseases. In contrary, for the healing of certain lung diseases, the delivering of medicament’s to the lower airways is important. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) enables to simulate the flow field and the particles deposi- tion in the lungs. By this method, it is possible to identify the probability of reaching particles into the lower airways through the tracheo-bronchial tree. In this paper, the flow field in the child lungs (5-year-old) in a constant sedentary breathing regime was simulated using the Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) with the LES Smagorinsky turbulence model. To verify the calculated velocities by LBM in OpenLB software, the finite vol- ume RANS simulation in Star-CCM+ was performed. The results showed the good agreement in the upper part of the airways. Some discrepancies were found in the lower part. Nevertheless, LBM and OpenLB were proven to be a capable tool to solve the air flow through the respiratory tract and will be used for particle deposition.

Lattice Boltzmann Method, Respiratory Tract, Smagorinsky, Velocity Field Validation

Lattice Boltzmann Method, Respiratory Tract, Smagorinsky, Velocity Field Validation

PRINZ, F.; POKORNÝ, J.; ELCNER, J.; JÍCHA, M.

2022

11.07.2022

EDP Sciences

Liberec

EFM21 – 15th International Conference “Experimental Fluid Mechanics 2021"

2100-014X

EPJ Web of Conferences

264

French Republic

1

6

6

https://www.epj-conferences.org/articles/epjconf/abs/2022/08/epjconf_efm2022_01030/epjconf_efm2022_01030.html

EFM_2021_Published