Flow in a bifurcating tube system typifying a major bronchial bifurcation is studied experimentally with a two color, two velocity component laser Doppler anemometer. The flow loop is composed of a pumping station, flow stratifiers and a constant head pressure tank; it can accommodate steady, pulsatile or oscillatory flow. The test section is a symmetric bifurcation of constant cross sectional area and has a branching angle of 70 deg. The test section is a cast of clear silicon rubber in a plexiglass mold that was milled on a numerically controlled milling machine. The flow division ratio from the parent to daughter branches is about unity. Steady flow results that model the inspiratory phase at Reynolds numbers of 518, 1036 and 2089, corresponding to Dean numbers of 98, 196 and 395, show that in the bifurcation plane velocity profiles in the daughter branches are skewed toward the inner wall. In the transverse plane, "m" shaped velocity profiles are found with low velocity at the center. Secondary flow patterns, which are responsible for such phenomena, are first observed at the axial position where the flow begins to turn. Flow separation was not observed at any point in the bifurcation.

Steady inspiratory and expiratory flow in a symmetrically bifurcating airway model was studied numerically using the finite element method (FIDAP). Flows of Reynolds number of 500 and 1000 during inspiration and a flow of Reynolds number of 500 during expiration were analyzed. Since the geometry of the bifurcation model used in this study is exactly the same as the model used in the experimental studies, the computed results were compared to the experimental findings. Results show that most of the important flow features that were observed in the experiment, such as the skewed velocity profiles in the daughter branches during inspiration and velocity peak in the parent tube during expiration, were captured in the numerical simulation. Quantitatively, the computed velocity profiles are in good agreement with the measured profiles. This comparison validates the computational simulations.

Flow in a symmetric bifurcation model of analytically known geometry was investigated experimentally under oscillatory flow conditions. The duration of the inspiratory and expiratory phases were set to be equal during the oscillatory period. A two velocity component laser Doppler anemometer was used to interrogate the flow field. Three different flow rates through the bifurcation were investigated. The peak Reynolds numbers, based on peak flow rates, were 700, 1278, and 2077. The Womersley number was set to 4.3 and it was kept at the same value for the three different flow rates. The results suggest that under the conditions studied a quasisteady flow assumption for oscillatory flow is valid for only about 50% of the oscillatory period, or it is limited to represent the oscillatory flow only in the vicinity of peak inspiration and peak expiration. Complex transport phenomena that occur during the transition between the respiratory phases cannot be elucidated and analyzed by quasisteady equivalents.

A model symmetric bifurcation was employed to simulate steady expiratory flow in the upper part of the human central airways. A two color, two component laser Doppler anemometer was used to measure both the axial flow and the secondary flow at three different Reynolds numbers of 518, 1036, and 2089, corresponding to Dean numbers of 98, 196, and 395. The test section is a symmetric bifurcation of constant cross-sectional area with a branching angle of 70 degrees. The flow rate into the two daughter branches was about the same. Results show that in the junction plane, velocity profiles in the daughter branches are skewed towards the inner walls. In the parent tube, just downstream of the flow divider, the velocity profile is biconcave with a dip at the center but this is rapidly transformed into a velocity peak. In a plane transverse to the bifurcation plane, parabolic velocity distribution was conserved through the daughter branches. In the parent tube, the transverse profiles became flat downstream of the flow divider and developed a defect at the center further downstream towards the end of the parent tube part of the bifurcation. The velocity defect was confined to a small region in the vicinity of the centerline. Helical motion typified by symmetric vortices was observed in the daughter branches. In the parent tube, a set of four vortices induced by the turning of the flow was observed.

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