Simulation of stenosis effect on airflow pattern in trachea and main bronchi

Abstract

Tracheal stenosis is a condition where the diameter size of trachea wall decreases and leads to the obstruction of the breathing airflow. Investigation on the effect of the stenosis to the airflow pattern in the trachea and main bronchi is the objective for this study. CT-scan images of two airways models were modeled, one with the stenosis and one without. Numerical solution was used to study the airway pattern inside the airway. Different boundary conditions of inspirations flow rate were applied; 15 l/min, 60 l/min and 100l/min where the ratio for the right main bronchus is 55% and for the left main bronchus is 45%. The results showed that the pressure drop inside the stenosis model is higher compared to that of healthy model. The pressure drop was also shown to interrupt the inlet condition into the main bronchi.

Rapid Prototyping 3D Model for PIV: Application in Human Trachea Model Flow Analysis

“…But for sleeping case, slightly disturbance shown in velocity distribution for both left and right bronchi as the velocity inlet was to slow to begin with. Several researchers in their study set the percentage distribution to right and left bronchi to 45:55 so that right bronchi received more airflow rate compared to the left bronchi [7,9,11]. In this study, the actual distribution was analysed to see the real percentage distribution to the second generation of human trachea.…”

“…Thus, information on flow behavior such as velocity and pressure distribution can increase the percentage of the successful treatment because it helps medical practitioner in deciding the best treatment for trachea patient. Various research using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) were done in order see the flow behavior inside human trachea [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. They summarized that flow inside human trachea did affected by the complexity of the trachea structure.…”