Numerical analysis of respiratory flow patterns within human upper airway

Abstract

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach is used to study the respiratory airflow dynamics within a human upper airway. The airway model which consists of the airway from nasal cavity, pharynx, larynx and trachea to triple bifurcation is built based on the CT images of a healthy volunteer and the Weibel model. The flow characteristics of the whole upper airway are quantitatively described at any time level of respiratory cycle. Simulation results of respiratory flow show good agreement with the clinical measures, experimental and computational results in the literature. The air mainly passes through the floor of the nasal cavity in the common, middle and inferior nasal meatus. The higher airway resistance and wall shear stresses are distributed on the posterior nasal valve. Although the airways of pharynx, larynx and bronchi experience low shear stresses, it is notable that relatively high shear stresses are distributed on the wall of epiglottis and bronchial bifurcations. Besides, two-dimensional fluid–structure interaction models of normal and abnormal airways are built to discuss the flow-induced deformation in various anatomy models. The result shows that the wall deformation in normal airway is relatively small.