Numerical Study on the Effect of Gender on the Airflow Characteristics inside the Nasal Cavity

Abstract

Understanding the properties of airflow in the nasal cavity is very important in determining the nasal physiology and in diagnosis of various anomalies associated with the nose. This numerical study presents the characteristic flow features inside a female nasal cavity in comparison with the male models developed by other researchers. The study is based on the numerical model obtained from computed tomographic data of a healthy Malaysian subject. A steady state Reynold Averaged Navier-Stokes and continuity equations was solved for both inspiratory and expiratory phase with flow rates of 7.5, 10 and 15 L/min for laminar case and 20, 30 and 40 L/min studies were simulated for turbulent boundary conditions. The differences observed in the flow parameters can be attributed to the anatomical variations that exist between the male and female nasal cavity. It was found that the female models were slightly smaller in length when compared to the male models. The nasal valve region was located about 2.0 cm, 1.65 cm and 2.5 cm from the anterior tip of nose. The value of maximum velocity obtained for the three female models are 3.17, 2.68, and 2.23 m/s respectively as against 4.2 m/s for similar flow rate obtained for the male model. The values of pressure drop for female cases were lower than the male models in the literature. In general, the female model displayed lower values of pressure drop when compared with the male models.