Numerical simulation of transport and deposition of micro-particles in two-phase flow in a human upper airway model from CT images

In this paper the air flow for typical inhalation rates as well as transport and deposition of particles in a realistic human upper airway model were analysed using a validated finite-volume code with user-enhanced programmes. Most important parameters affecting deposition of particles are inlet flow rate, airway geometry and geometric and physical characteristics of particles. The tubular airway model in this study consists of upper trachea-bronchial airways starting from trachea (G0) to second generation of bifurcations (G2) reconstructed from computerised tomography (CT) data of a healthy human. The low Reynolds number (LRN) k-ω turbulence model was used to simulate the laminar to turbulent occurred airflow. The results show that deposition efficiencies (DE) are typically larger during high level breathing (Qin = 60 l/min) than low-level breathing (Qin = 15 l/min) and DE is significantly larger in the right bronchial airway to the left, mainly because of the slightly greater dimensions of the right bronchial airway.