A Numerical Simulation of the Airflow and Aerosol Particle Deposition in a Realistic Airway Model of a Healthy Adult

Determining the behavior of aerosol drug particles is of vital importance in the treatment of respiratory tract diseases. Despite the development of imaging techniques in the pulmonary region in recent years, current imaging techniques are insufficient to detect particle deposition. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods can fill the gap in this field as they take into account the very different physical processes that occur during aerosol transport. This study aims to numerically investigate the airflow and the aerosol particle dynamics on a realistic human respiratory tract model during multiple breathing cycles. The simulations were conducted on the different breathing conditions for people under light, normal, and heavy physical activities, and the aerosol particles with different aerodynamic diameters (i.e., dp=2, 5, and 7 µm). The numerical results were validated by comparing extensively with experimental and numerical results. The results indicated that the airflow during inspiration and expiration was characteristically different from each other and changed with the inspiration flow rate. It was determined that small-sized particles followed the streamlines and moved towards the distal of the lung under low respiratory conditions. On the other hand, larger particles tended to deposit in higher generations due to the higher inertia. It was found that with the increase of inspiration flow rate the deposition of particles increased for all particles during multiple breaths. For light breathing conditions, low deposition efficiencies were obtained because the particles followed the streamlines and moved towards the distal part of the lung. The particle deposition efficiency under heavy breathing conditions was 28.2% for 2 µm, 33.05% for 5 µm, and 38.4% for 7 µm particles. The results showed that inertial impaction plays an active role in particle deposition.