Computation and analysis for airflow characteristics of physical quantities caused by nasal obstruction

Abstract

Nasal obstruction is a common disease found in humans and one of the most popular research topics. This article proposes an adaptive computing algorithm to construct the mesh structure for simulating the unsteady turbulent airflow in the nasal cavity of patients with nasal airway obstruction (NAO) with the help of MIMICS 16.0 × 64 and COMSOL 5.4. The computing results provide a lucid explanation for the aerodynamic impairment of the nasal passages and efficiently locate the three-dimensional region of the obstruction. Details of the time-dependent flow properties in different nasal cavities indicate that the pressure gradient along the streamline provides the NAO region. Several physical properties were discussed during one respiratory cycle. The merits of the adaptive computing technique showed that the time consumption and precision of the solutions were both satisfactory. The implementation of computer-aided diagnosis can be expected with more efforts in the near future.