ICCM Conferences, The 6th International Conference on Computational Methods (ICCM2015)

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Numerical Investigation of Aerosol Particle Transport and Deposition in Realistic Lung Airway
Mohammad Saidul Islam, Suvash C. Saha, Emilie Sauret, YuanTong Gu, Zoran D. Ristovski

Last modified: 2015-06-25

Abstract


Different human activities like combustion of fossil fuels, biomass burning, industrial and agricultural activities, emit a large amount of particulates into the atmosphere. As a consequence, the air we inhale contains significant amount of suspended particles, including organic and inorganic solids and liquids, as well as various microorganism, which are solely responsible for a number of pulmonary diseases. Developing a numerical model for transport and deposition of foreign particles in realistic lung geometry is very challenging due to the complex geometrical structure of the human lung. In this study, we have numerically investigated the airborne particle transport and its deposition in human lung surface. In order to obtain the appropriate results of particle transport and deposition in human lung, we have generated realistic lung geometry from the CT scan obtained from a local hospital. For a more accurate approach, we have also created a mucus layer inside the geometry, adjacent to the lung surface and added all apposite mucus layer properties to the wall surface. The Lagrangian particle tracking technique is employed by using ANSYS FLUENT solver to simulate the steady-state inspiratory flow. Various injection techniques have been introduced to release the foreign particles through the inlet of the geometry. In order to investigate the effects of particle size on deposition, numerical calculations are carried out for different size particle ranging from. The numerical results show that particle deposition pattern is completely dependent on its initial position and in case of realistic geometry; most of the particles are deposited on the rough wall surface of the lung geometry instead of carinal region.


Keywords


Keywords: Particle Transport, Particle Deposition, Realistic Lung Airway, Mucus Layer, Pollutant Particles.

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