Numerical Simulation of Transport and Deposition of Dust Particles in Human Tracheobronchial Airways

Endalew Getnet Tsega,Vinod Kumar Katiyar,Pratibha Gupta

doi:10.11648/j.ijbse.20190701.12

Endalew Getnet Tsega, Vinod Kumar Katiyar + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijbse.20190701.12

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Abstract

Dust is a common pollutant of the air we breath. If dust particles are inhaled and deposited in human airways, they can cause a variety of respiratory disorders. The inhaled dust particles motion in human airways goes along with the airflow. The transport process can be considered as a two-phase flow of a gas phase and a particle phase. In this study, we investigated the airflow and dust particles transport and deposition in human tracheobronchial airways using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. A steady simulation was performed in asymmetric tracheobronchial airway mode consisting of 19 outlets to observe the characteristics of airflow fields. The discrete phase model (DPM) was employed to predict the particle trajectories and deposition in the airway model. Deposition resulted from inertial impaction and gravitational sedimentation was considered. In the simulation, the airflow characteristics differences in the right and left bronchial trees were observed. The influence of secondary flow on dust particles motion was great. More dust particles were deposited in the right bronchial tree than in the left. The deposition fraction of dust particles in human tracheobronchial airways was high. This study can provide awareness on deposition of dust particles passing beyond the larynx and enhance prevention of their entry into the respiratory system. It can also contribute a convenient way on the location of deposition of particles of a given type in human respiratory tract to be used for respiratory disease preventions.

Highlights

Dust is a typical air contaminant generated by many different sources and human activities
It is important to understand the transport and deposition of dust particles in the human respiratory tract to treat the respiratory diseases caused by dust pollution from different sources and activities
Numerous computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of gas-particle flow have been performed in human airway models using EulerianLagrangian approach [3,4,5,6,7] to investigate the transport and deposition of particles in human respiratory tract

Summary

Introduction

Dust is a typical air contaminant generated by many different sources and human activities. Numerous CFD simulations of gas-particle flow have been performed in human airway models using EulerianLagrangian approach [3,4,5,6,7] to investigate the transport and deposition of particles in human respiratory tract. In this approach, the fluid phase is modeled with Navier-Stokes equations, and the particle phase is modeled using a large amount of individual particles obeying the Newtonian laws of motion. Zhang et al [8] analyzed the transport and deposition of cigarette smoke particles in CT-scan human airway model. Zho et al [11] investigated the deposition of fiber particles using empirical

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