Toby Lai Thesis

COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC MODELLING OF PARTICLE DEPOSITION IN HUMAN
UPPER AIRWAYS
by
Toby Lai
A thesis submitted for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
The Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences
Swinburne University of Technology
2011
Declaration
This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any degree or
diploma, except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis. To the best of my
knowledge, this thesis contains no materials previously published or written by another
person except where due reference is made in the text of the thesis.
Signed________________________
Date _________________________
i
Abstract
This thesis documents a Doctoral research program whose objective was the study of
particle deposition in the human lung, based upon a computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
modelling. Research in this field started as early as 1960 with the general aim of
understanding how various particle sizes can cause lung diseases and how the delivery of
aerosolized drugs is more effectively deposited in the human lung. These early studies,
however, focused heavily on experimental in vitro methods, at least until advancements in
computing technology facilitated the use of CFD as a tool in engineering applications with
high degree of accuracy. However, even after more than a half century of research, data
on particle deposition in the human lung was less than ideal, and hence there was still a
need to develop a holistic approach to this problem. The holistic approach was the main
theme of this Doctoral research.
The first part of this thesis presents background information about the human respiratory
system; mechanisms of particle deposition and the governing equations. This information
is then used for defining the model domain and the boundary initial conditions, as well as
to provide support and physical interpretation of the numerical predictions.
The second part of the thesis documents an in vitro experimental study whose objective
was to determine the validity/veracity of the results. The experiments that were
conducted used Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) to measure steady fluid flow under
various operating conditions. Then a one to one simulation was created using a
commercial CFD program (known as CFX), with the aid of Computer Aided Design (CAD).
The LDA data obtained in vitro was used to validate the numerical prediction and build
confidence in using CFX as a CFD tool for fluid flow and particle deposition simulation. A
good agreement was obtained between the experimental and numerical predictions.
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The third section of this thesis is related to the fluid flow in a four generation bifurcation,
in which the results were related to the upper section of the human lung. Flow fields
along the plane and cross section planes were investigated. The findings from this part of
the study showed a secondary flow downstream with imbalanced mass flow rate, upon
using a zero relative pressure at the outlets. This section demonstrated how important
the boundary condition was to obtaining realistic results. Moreover, an important aspect
of CFD analysis was the quality of the mesh generation. Without a proper refinement of
the mesh, the end results were of limited accuracy.
The fourth section of the thesis consists of information on how to develop and create
realistic human airway model, using the commercial package Solidworks, and how to
refine the mesh using the advanced meshing tool ANSYS ICEM. A grid independence test
was performed to ensure that the mesh generated can produce accurate results without
compromising computational time.
The final section of this thesis is related to the analysis of the particle depositions in
human airways under various operating conditions. Particle deposition simulation was
first studied on a symmetrical model and was later extended to asymmetrical airways and
transient conditions. The findings showed that the particles which entered each of the five
lung lobes were different and the deposition efficiency was found to be a proportional to
the Stokes Number which, in turn, related to the size, density, and the velocity of the
particle. Moreover, the results also showed how the entry position of a particle changed
the location and possibility of deposition within the lung.
The thesis concludes with a discussion of how the research findings contributed to
research related to particle deposition in the human lung. Particular emphasis was also
given to the simulation conditions that should be used in the analysis of particle
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deposition in the human lung, and how to generate meshes that could be used for
accurately simulating bifurcating flow.
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Table of Contents
Chapter. 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background and Objectives ..................................................................................... 2
1.2 Research Significance .............................................................................................. 4
1.3 Perceived Contributions of the Research ................................................................ 6

1.4 Thesis Structure ....................................................................................................... 7
Chapter. 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................. 9
2.1 Overview of Literature Review Process................................................................. 10
2.2 The Human Respiratory System ............................................................................ 12
2.3 Particle Deposition in the Human Respiratory System ......................................... 21

2.4 Related Studies of Particle Deposition in the Human Respiratory System ........... 31
2.5 Computational Fluid Dynamics and Modelling ..................................................... 38
2.6 Application of CFD to Modelling of Biological Systems ........................................ 53
2.7 Conclusions and Research Directions.................................................................... 58

Chapter. 3 In-Vitro Experimental Study Modelling Human Airways ............................... 60
3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 61
3.2 Experimental Apparatus ........................................................................................ 62
3.3 Principles of Laser Doppler Anemometers (LDAs) ................................................ 64
3.4 Experimental Set Up .............................................................................................. 66

3.5 Initial Numerical Experimentation ........................................................................ 74
3.6 Results and Observations ...................................................................................... 78
3.7 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 86
Chapter. 4 Numerical Analysis In A Four Generation Airway Under Steady Flow .......... 87
4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 88
4.2 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 89
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4.3 Numerical Method ................................................................................................ 95
4.4 Results and Discussion .......................................................................................... 97

4.5 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 117
Chapter. 5 Numerical Analysis on Particle Deposition in Symmetrical Human Upper

Airways Under Steady Conditions ...................................................................................... 118
5.1 Particle Deposition Modelling using CFD ............................................................ 119
5.2 Model Validation ................................................................................................. 121

5.3 Geometric Model ................................................................................................ 125
5.4 Domain and Boundary Conditions ...................................................................... 125
5.5 Results ................................................................................................................. 128
5.6 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Density ........................................................... 131
5.7 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Size ................................................................. 135

5.8 Deposition Efficiency vs. Local Stokes Number ................................................... 140
5.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 142
Chapter. 6 Creation of Asymmetric Airways Model ...................................................... 144
6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 145

6.2 Geometry Creation and Software Tools .............................................................. 149
6.3 Geometry Creation using Solidworks .................................................................. 154
6.4 Meshing ............................................................................................................... 162
6.5 Meshing with ANSYS ICEM .................................................................................. 164
6.6 Physical Definition and Boundary Conditions ..................................................... 178

6.7 Grid Independence Test ...................................................................................... 180
6.8 Results for 5 different mesh configurations ........................................................ 181
6.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 187
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Chapter. 7 Numerical Analysis on Particle Deposition in Asymmetrical Human Upper
Airways under Steady and Transient Conditions ............................................................... 188
7.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 189

7.2 Airways Geometry model .................................................................................... 190
7.3 Fluid and Particles Properties .............................................................................. 191
7.4 Boundary conditions of the model Airways ........................................................ 192
7.5 Turbulence model ............................................................................................... 197

7.6 Fluid flow Results................................................................................................. 199
7.7 Particle deposition Results .................................................................................. 214
7.8 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 236
Chapter. 8 Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research .......................... 237
8.1 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 238

8.2 Recommendations for future research ............................................................... 241
Appendix A ......................................................................................................................... 243
References................................................................................................................................i
vii
List of Figures
Figure 2-1 Overall structure of the respiratory system – Reproduced from Sherwood [13]
.............................................................................................................................................. 14
Figure 2-2 Number and dimensions of airways in adult lung and the structure of the airway
wall – Reproduced from Hickey [14] .................................................................................... 16
Figure 2-3 Generations and Zones of the whole human lung airway (West [12]) .............. 17
Figure 2-4 Illustration of particle transport mechanisms onto airway surfaces (Martonen
[20]) ...................................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 2-5 Fluid element for conservation laws .................................................................. 42
Figure 2-6 Mass flows in and out of fluid element. ............................................................. 44
Figure 2-7 Stress components on three faces of fluid element ........................................... 47

Figure 2-8 Stress components in the x-direction ................................................................. 47
Figure 3-1 Laser Doppler Anemometry at Swinburne University of Technology ................ 63
Figure 3-2 Dual beam optical system and fringe pattern .................................................... 64
Figure 3-3 LDA system setup ................................................................................................ 66
Figure 3-4 Measurement Volume ........................................................................................ 67

Figure 3-5 Schematic diagram for the experimental setup ................................................. 68
Figure 3-6 Actual equipment setup at Swinburne Fluid Lab ................................................ 69
Figure 3-7 Glass bifurcation model ...................................................................................... 70
Figure 3-8 Dimension of bifurcation model mimicking the human airways ....................... 71
Figure 3-9 LDA measurements ............................................................................................. 71
Figure 3-10 Mesh of the bifurcation geometry ................................................................... 74
Figure 3-11 Solution converges for all the velocity investigated variables ......................... 75
Figure 3-12 Boundary conditions for the bifurcation model ............................................... 77

Figure 3-13 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 518 ........................................ 79
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Figure 3-14 Differences between Simulation model and Experimental model .................. 80
Figure 3-15 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 1036 ...................................... 83
Figure 3-16 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 2089 ...................................... 85

Figure 4-1 (a) In-plane (b) off-plane geometries and (c) shows two perpendicular planes in
off-plane bifurcation model ................................................................................................. 90
Figure 4-2 Computational domain for in-plane model with dimensions and boundary
conditions. ............................................................................................................................ 91
Figure 4-3 Mesh of the Gen 3 & Gen 4 showing the density increase near flow divider (in
plane model) Generated by author using CFX-5.7............................................................... 95
Figure 4-4 Mesh of the Gen 3 & Gen 4 showing the density increase near flow divider (off
plane model) Generated by author using CFX-5.7............................................................... 96
Figure 4-5 Comparison between experimental results with numerical results at Re = 1036
.............................................................................................................................................. 98
Figure 4-6 Comparison between numerical results with Liu, et al. [54] numerical results at
the end of the second-generation tube in a three-generation airway with (a) Re = 200, (b)
Re=800 and (c) Re=1400. ................................................................................................... 100
Figure 4-7 Velocity Plot in the main Trachea (Generation 0). ........................................... 103
Figure 4-8 Velocity patterns for the in-plane configuration .............................................. 104
Figure 4-9 Velocity patterns in the off-plane configuration (a) Plane A and (b) Plane B .. 105
Figure 4-10 Velocity Vector Plots for Generation 2 cross section planes at Re=500 (in-plane
model). ............................................................................................................................... 108
model). ............................................................................................................................... 109
model). ............................................................................................................................... 110
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Figure 4-13. Mass flow rates comparison between all the outlets P11 – P18 for different
Reynolds Number. .............................................................................................................. 113
Figure 4-14 Mass flow rate percentages for Reynolds Number at each outlet................. 114
Figure 4-15 Variations of the pressure drop coefficient with Re....................................... 116
Figure 5-1 Validation of Current model ............................................................................. 124

Figure 5-3 Regions of the lung model. ............................................................................... 129
Figure 5-4 Tracks for particles deposited at Generation 1 ................................................ 130
Figure 5-5 Re = 500, Particle size = 3 micron ..................................................................... 132
Figure 5-6 Re = 500, Particle size = 9 micron ..................................................................... 133

Figure 5-7 Re = 500, Particle size = 15 micron ................................................................... 133
Figure 5-10 Re = 2000, Particle size = 15 micron ............................................................... 134

Figure 5-11 Re = 500 Particle Density = 350 kg/m3 ......................................................... 136
Figure 5-12 Re = 500 Particle Density = 1000 kg/m3 ....................................................... 136

Figure 5-16 Re = 2000 Particle Density = 1000 kg/m3 ..................................................... 138
Figure 5-19 Log-log plot of particle deposition efficiency in the first for generations vs.
Local Stokes number calculated from the mean velocity at the specific generation. ....... 141
Figure 5-20 Bifurcations with different outside curvature, with the same diameter ratios.
............................................................................................................................................ 142
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Figure 6-1 Somso Anatomy Model GS4-3
(http://www.somso.de/deutsch/anatomie/gs4_3.htm) ................................................... 151
Figure 6-2 Default planes in Solidworks. ............................................................................ 154
Figure 6-3 Top Plane with dimensions of trachea ............................................................. 155
Figure 6-4 Extrusion of the trachea ................................................................................... 156

Figure 6-5 Guiding sketch for construction of generation 1 .............................................. 157
Figure 6-6 Building of Plane for Generation 1 ................................................................... 158
Figure 6-7 Circle for Generation 1...................................................................................... 158
Figure 6-8 Lofting for generation 1 into a body ................................................................. 159

Figure 6-9 Completed Bifurcation ...................................................................................... 160
Figure 6-10 Upper Airways Model ..................................................................................... 161
Figure 6-11 Geometry imported into ANSYS ICEM ............................................................ 165
Figure 6-12 Hexelements generated by sweeping - Reproduced from Owen [96] ........... 166
Figure 6-13 Mesh of a tube by sweeping, reproduced from ANSYS Documentation [99] 166
Figure 6-14 Initial blocking in ICEM.................................................................................... 167
Figure 6-15 Block associated with the geometry ............................................................... 169
Figure 6-16 Cuboid is the ideal block for sweeping ........................................................... 169
Figure 6-17 Blocks has been split and nodes has been moved to create uniform blocks . 170
Figure 6-18 Ogrid feature in ICEM ..................................................................................... 172
Figure 6-19 The mesh quality without Ogrid. Top figure is Angle, mid figure is Determinant
3x3x3, bottom figure is the quality .................................................................................... 172
Figure 6-20 The mesh quality with Ogrid. Top figure is Angle, mid figure is Determinant
3x3x3, bottom figure is the quality .................................................................................... 174
Figure 6-21 Setting mesh parameters for parts ................................................................. 176
Figure 6-22 Resultant mesh for Extra Coarse Mesh .......................................................... 176
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Figure 6-23 End view of Extra Coarse and Fine Mesh ........................................................ 177
Figure 6-24 Branch name denoted as lower case letter and Horsfield generation number is
labelled inside the bracket. (Coordinate system is also shown in figure) ........................ 181
Figure 6-25 Locations of 12 stations and top right hand corner has the cross section of a
measurement station viewed from proximal position. ..................................................... 183
Figure 6-26 Station 1A ........................................................................................................ 184
Figure 6-27 Station 1C ........................................................................................................ 184
Figure 6-28 Station 2A ........................................................................................................ 184

Figure 6-29 Station 2C ........................................................................................................ 184
Figure 6-30 Station 3A ........................................................................................................ 184

Figure 6-31 Station 3C ........................................................................................................ 184
Figure 6-32 Results of station 4 ......................................................................................... 186
Figure 7-1 Airway model for transient particle deposition simulation.............................. 190
Figure 7-2 Measured resting breathing cycles ................................................................... 192
Figure 7-3 Measured light exercise cycles ......................................................................... 193

Figure 7-4 Measured heavy exercise cycles ....................................................................... 193
Figure 7-5 Boundary flow conditions during inhalation phase. ......................................... 195
Figure 7-6 Flow profile for Station 3, 4 and 5 at T=0.4s ..................................................... 201
Figure 7-7 Flow profile for Station 3, 4 and 5 at T=0.8 ...................................................... 201
Figure 7-10 Flow profile for station 6, 7 and 8 at T=0.4..................................................... 204

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Figure 7-14 Flow profile for station 9 and 10 at T=0.4 ...................................................... 206
Figure 7-18 Flow profile for station 11 and 12 at T=0.4 .................................................... 208
Figure 7-22 Vector plots of slice at different station showing secondary flow ................. 211
Figure 7-23 Stokes number vs time for resting condition ................................................. 215
Figure 7-24 Stokes number vs time for light exercise condition ....................................... 216
Figure 7-25 Stokes number vs time for heavy exercise condition ..................................... 216
Figure 7-26 Transient particle deposition fractions for different particle size at a full
inhalation cycle under resting condition. .......................................................................... 218
inhalation cycle under light exercise.................................................................................. 219
inhalation cycle under heavy exercise. .............................................................................. 220
Figure 7-29 Upper airways generation labels and colour codes. ...................................... 222
Figure 7-30 Particle tracks at time = 0.1154s for heavy exercise and 10 micron particles
conditions ........................................................................................................................... 223
conditions ........................................................................................................................... 224
conditions ........................................................................................................................... 225
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Figure 7-33 Particle tracks at time = 1.0963s for light exercise and 10 micron particles
conditions ........................................................................................................................... 226
Figure 7-34 Snap shot of release position at time step t = 1.7907s under light exercise
breathing conditions with 10 micron particles. ................................................................. 228
Figure 7-35 Release positions for different particle sizes under light exercise condition at t
= 1.79s ................................................................................................................................ 230
Figure 7-36 Release position for deposited particles of 6 micron under heavy exercise at
different time steps............................................................................................................ 231
Figure 7-37 Comparison of release position for two different breathing at 6 micron at time
step 11. ............................................................................................................................... 232
Figure 7-38 5 different exit location for particles .............................................................. 233
Figure 7-39 Release position of exit particles for 10 micron under light exercise. ........... 234
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List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
BSL: Baseline
CAD: Computer Aided Design
CFD: Computational Fluid Dynamics
CPFD: Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics
COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
CT: Co-axial Tomography
DE: Deposition Efficiency
DES: Detached Eddy Simulation
DF: Deposition Fraction
EM: Empirical Model
GP: General Practitioners
ICRP: International Commission on Radiation Protection
IN: Inlet
LDA: Laser Doppler Anemometers
LES: Large Eddy Simulation
LL: Left Lower
LRR: Launder, Reece and Rodi Isotropization of Production model
LU: Left Upper
MPM: Multiple Path Model
PD: Particle Dynamics
QI: Quasi-Isotropic model
RANS: Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes
RL: Right Lower
RM: Right Middle
RSM: Reynolds-Stress Models
RU: Right Upper
SMC: Second Moment Closure
SPM: Single Path Model
TGLD: Task Group on Lung Dynamics
xv
Nomenclature
Re: Reynolds Number
Stk: Stokes Number
: Womersley Number
: Density of fluid (kg/m)
U: Mean Velocity (m/s)
U: Velocity Vector U(x,y,z)
_
m: Mass flow rate (m3/s)
Vmean: Average velocity (m/s)
CDp: Particle drag coefficient
Qmedial: Mass flow rate in the medial branch
: Angular frequency (=2f)
f
: Fringe separation
: Laser wavelength
: Laser beam intersection angle
fD: Doppler shift frequency
: Dynamics viscosity
: Kinematic viscosity
P: Pressure
cp : Pressure drop coefficient
: Particle deposition efficiency
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Acknowledgments
The work reported in this thesis was initiated by Prof. Y. Morsi, my supervisor. I wish to
express gratitude for his courage; guidance and constructive criticism throughout the
research without him this work would not have been completed.
Thanks to Australia Research Council (ARC) for providing funding for this research in the
first three years since 2002.
Special thanks to Dr M. Singh for reading and provide suggestions on improving the quality
of this thesis. I also would like to express my appreciation to Dr S. Das for his help during
the final stage of study.
xvii
Publications Arising from this Thesis
[1] T. Lai, Y. S. Morsi, W. Yang, and J. Mazumdar, "Flow through Bifurcation - Study
Particle Deposition in Human Lung," presented at International Congress On
Biological And Medical Engineering 2002, Singapore, pp. 2002.
[2] Lai, T., Morsi, Y., Mazumdar, J. “Modelling and Simulation of Particles Deposition in
the Human Lung”, Profiles in Industrial Research Knowledge and Innovation 2002,
Edited by Dario Toncich, ISBN 1 876 567 04 X., 313-327.
[3] Lai, T., Morsi, Y., “Particle Deposition in the Human Lung – Experimental Design”,
Profiles in Industrial Research Knowledge and Innovation 2003, Edited by Dario
Toncich., ISBN 1 876 567 05 8, 325-332.
[4] I.J. Freshwater, Y.S. Morsi, and T. Lai, “The effect of angle on wall shear stresses in
a LIMA to LAD anastomosis: numerical modelling of pulsatile flow”, Journal of
Engineering in Medicine, 743-757, 2006.
[5] T.C. Lai, Y.S. Morsi, M. Singh, “Numerical characterization of the flow field in a four
generation airways”, Journal of Mechanics in Medicine and Biology, Vol. 8, No. 1,
55-74, 2008.
xviii
Chapter. 1 Introduction
1
1.1 Background and Objectives
The principal objective of this research was to study and model the deposition of particles
within the human lung through the application of modern engineering approaches.
The pursuit of this research was considered to be significant because rapid increase in
population and industrial growth had accentuated air pollution, particularly within
factories and their surrounding areas. The inhalation of pollutants, and their subsequent
impact on humans, had become an important social issue. Understanding the impact of
particle deposition in the human lung was therefore is the key to understanding the
impact of pollutants.
The inhalation of hazardous pollutants can cause a variety of pulmonary injuries and
diseases such as asthma, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and
increase in lung and nasal cancer risks caused by inhalation of various harmful particles
(Martonen [1], Sussman, et al. [2], Sussman, et al. [3]). In extreme cases, ultra-fine
particles can get into blood stream through alveolar sac, deep inside the lung, causing
damage to other organs such as the kidneys and liver. It was well documented that the
particle concentration inhaled can have an adverse effect on human health. As reported
by Nemmar, et al. [4], pollution by particulates had been consistently associated with
increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics [5], each year lung disease was related to
some 19,200 deaths in Australia. Some of the lung disease risk factors included:
 Smoking and passive smoking;
 Exposure to environmental agents, including indoor and outdoor air pollutants;
 Occupational dusts and chemicals (McKenzie, et al. [6]).
2
According to the Australian Lung Foundation[7], lung disease had annually caused 350,000
hospitalisations in Australia, while upper respiratory tract infections accounted for 3-4
million visits to general practitioners (GPs) each year – an average of six percent of all GP
consultations- with an estimated cost of more than $150 million Australian dollars in
direct costs alone[7]. These figures indicate the importance of this research topic. The
research conducted in this thesis is partly funded by Australian Research Council (ARC),
Swinburne University and a private company called BJJS Associates in Australia.
On the other hand, particulate inhalation can also have positive attributes, especially
when it is used as a means of delivering therapeutic agents to the human body. Inhalation
was gaining an increased acceptance as a convenient, reproducible, and non-invasive
method of drug delivery to the lung tissue and systemic circulation.
Therefore, gaining an understanding of particle depositions in the human lung was

important for both risk assessment related to air quality and for delivery of medication.
The ability to model particle deposition was the key to acquiring this understanding and
hence there was a significant impetus for this research.
3
1.2 Research Significance
It was noted in Section 1.1 that inhaled particles, deposited in the lung, could cause a
variety of pulmonary injuries and diseases. Thus, to assess the potential risk to human
health from inhaled particles, an accurate estimate of initial particle deposition along the
respiratory tract and lung was significant and necessary.
In-vitro and in-vivo particle deposition experimental studies typically employed laboratory
and animal models. However, there were significant interspecies differences in deposition.
To extrapolate the results of such studies to humans, dosimetry models for laboratory
animals and humans had to be developed so that an adequate regional respiratory tract
resolution could be obtained. This was a key objective of this Doctoral research. The
research aimed to create an efficient numerical and commutative model to calculate
lobar-specific and airway-specific deposition of mono-disperse and poly-disperse aerosols
in the human respiratory tracts.
Many earlier studies (Zhao and Lieber [8], Martonen, et al. [9], Zhang and Kleinstreuer
[10]) commonly idealized the airway tree structure to consist of symmetrical and
dichotomous branching networks. The use of this symmetrical structure had led to a
typical-path formulation that allowed for simulating average regional deposition only, and
could not account for heterogeneities in a real human lung system. For a human lung, a
full multiple-path model could not be implemented due to the lack of a complete
measurement data of the conducting airway. Major asymmetries exist in the upper
portion of the human. These asymmetries lead to different particle deposition patterns in
the human airways, as well as in the apportionment of airflow to the different lung lobes.
However, the lower airways of the human lung can be reasonably characterized in a
symmetric fashion (Raabe, et al. [11]).
4
This Doctoral research set out to develop and test a new model, termed the limited
multiple-path model, which combined asymmetry and symmetry. The first three
generations used asymmetrical structure to match real dimensions of the human lung, to
lead to five lung lobes. From each lobe to their terminal alveolar sacs, the individual
symmetrical and dichotomous branching network were employed. This was the first time
that such a model had been proposed and it represents a novel method of determining
particle deposition in the human lung. This new model will assist in monitoring
atmospheric quality and assess the risks associated with the deposition of particles. In
addition, the commercial code that was developed could potentially lead to a marketable
software package.
5
1.3 Perceived Contributions of the Research
The research presented in this Doctoral dissertation is perceived to have made a number
of specific contributions to the field. These are:
(i) A detailed review of literature in the field of particle deposition and its modelling
and measurement.
(ii) Development of the modelling process based upon a commercial computational

fluid dynamics software system. The modelling process included geometry creation,
mesh generation; determination and application of appropriate boundary
conditions, and detailed analysis of the results.
(iii) Conduct of an experimental study into fluid flow in bifurcating tubes which can be
used to provide a fundamental background for computer simulation.
(iv) Detailed analysis of the grid independence test to ensure that the applied model
had a very fine mesh suitable for high resolution analysis.
(v) Publication of five research papers, including two in international (peer reviewed)
refereed journals and one in an international conference.
6
1.4 Thesis Structure
This Doctoral thesis is composed of eight chapters, including this one. The content of the
chapters that follow on is summarized below:
 Chapter 2 provides the background information and impetus for this research
program, through a detailed literature review on particle deposition in the human
lung, including an explanation of the human respiratory system. The review also
covers the use of CFD in both generalised applications and those specific to this
research.
 Chapter 3 presents experimental results of fluid flow in bifurcating airway models.

The results of different flow rates (hence different Reynolds Numbers) are
presented.
 Chapter 4 presents numerical results of fluid flow in bifurcating airway models. The
results are validated against the experimental results.
 Chapter 5 provides an in depth analysis of the numerical results of Chapter 4 and

applies the symmetric airways model by simulating the model with particle
deposition. The results are validated against other studies.
 Chapter 6 details the creation of a CAD model of realistic asymmetric airways. The
model is then meshed using a commercial package, known as ANSYS ICEM. The
meshing techniques applied in industry are described in detail. Grid independence
tests are performed to confirm that the mesh is adequate for accurate simulation
results.
 Chapter 7, which is the key to this research, presents the numerical simulation
results of particle deposition in a realistic airways model. Extensive analysis is
carried out to show the importance of the results of particle deposition.
7
 Chapter 8 presents the conclusions of this research, including an assessment of its
strengths and weaknesses. It also puts forward recommendations for further
research.
8
Chapter. 2 Literature Review
9
2.1 Overview of Literature Review Process
The purpose of this literature review is to provide the background to (and justification for)
the directions pursued during this research. The core objective of this research, restated
here, was to deploy computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate particle deposition
in the human lung.
The review documented in this chapter is based upon a range of literature including text
books, referred journal papers, conference proceedings and internet web sites from
credible institutions.
This chapter commences with a review of literature providing basic background

information on human respiratory systems. An understanding of this physiology was
critical to determining the boundary conditions of the model that was deployed in this
research. The human respiratory system and the research undertaken into it had,
unsurprisingly, been extensively documented in many medical text books, and
measurements of the geometry of the human lung had also been extensively documented
by many researchers.
Following the background discussions, a more specific review of research into particle
deposition in human respiratory systems documents some of the studies in the field. This
is followed up with an in-depth review of various experimental studies and research
programs that have been undertaken by many researchers around the world.
A core element of this Doctoral research involved the deployment of computational fluid
dynamics (CFD), and so this literature review examines the relevant aspects – specifically,
 The origins of CFD
 Applications of CFD in conventional engineering applications
10
 The application of CFD in biomedical science applications
This leads to a review of research into the application of CFD in particle deposition in the
human lung.
This chapter concludes with a summation of all the basic elements garnered from the
literature review and shows how these led to a natural progression for the Doctoral
research undertaken and documented herein.
11
2.2 The Human Respiratory System
2.2.1 Background
An understanding of the human respiratory system is essential to the study of particle

deposition in the human lung. An inhaled particle travels together with the air flow, while
the air flow into the lung is guided by the human lung morphology. Understanding the
system and its morphology was therefore fundamental to this research.
The respiratory system and its morphology had been heavily documented over many
years. Much of the work had already moved beyond research papers and had reached
book and textbook publications – some of it could be classified as basic medical
knowledge but needs to be included herein for completeness, given that this research
program spans both medical and engineering phenomena.
This section is based on readings undertaken from a number of scholarly books,

specifically the book by West [12]. In situations where specific elements have been
abstracted from authors, these are individually referenced.
2.2.2 Structure and function of the normal lung
The human respiratory system is a closed loop system. The primary function of the lungs is
to exchange oxygen with carbon dioxide – this is referred to as gas exchange. The process
of gas exchange is controlled by the central nervous system; the movement of the
diaphragm and chest wall musculature – the blood circulation system allows the gas
exchange to occur efficiently.
12
Alveolar level of the human lung is where gas exchange occurs (CO2 exchange O2); the
inspired air and the blood flow inside small blood vessel are separated only by a thin
tissue layer. The duration of the gas exchange performed by the red blood cells takes only
0.25 seconds. In a healthy human adult, the entire blood volume of the whole body passes
through the lung at resting condition in order to achieve 5 litres per minute. The total
surface of the human lung walls from trachea to alveolar level is approximately 80 square
metres (Sherwood [13]).
Human lung is filled with air (O2, CO2 and other gases) and blood, only about 10% of the
lung is solid tissue. The outer surface of the human lung is supported by rib cage to
maintain architectural integrity while the tissue deep inside the lung is delicate enough to
allow gas exchange. The functional structure of the lung can be divided into:
 Conducting airways (dead air space).
 Gas exchange portions.
The human lung conducting airways are fairly rigid and the shape is maintained during the
breathing cycle, the rigidness is supported by cartilage rings that wraps around the airway
tube. Only the gas exchange portions where the walls for the air passage will be closed
during exhalation. The two plumbing systems are:
 Airways for ventilation.
 The circulatory system for perfusion.
Both of these are under low pressure. Figure 2-1, which has been reproduced from
Sherwood [13], shows the overall structure of the human lung. It is important here to
note that breathing is driven by pressure differences because this is one of the main
boundary conditions for the computer simulation.
13
Figure 2-1 Schematic illustration of the overall structure of the respiratory system –Sherwood [13]
A typical normal human adult lung weight is about 300-400 grams. Upper and middle
lobes are anterior meaning that they are at the front of the body. Lower lobes are
posterior meaning that they are at the back of the human body.
Each lung lobe has more than 20 bronchopulmonary segments, they are relatively
constant in size. Physiopathology behind this human lung formation is for defending
diseases such as tuberculosis. The conducting airways will be covered in more detail in
Section 2.2.3.
14
2.2.3 The conducting airways
From the first generation of the human airways, trachea, the respiratory tree divides into
paired branches of uneven length and diameter. Therefore, it is described as having an
arborizing branching pattern of irregular dichotomy in medical terms. The internal
diameter of a branch is related to the number of alveoli at the end of that branch. The
longer airways, with more branches and more alveoli, usually have a wider lumen
diameter that allows greater airflow, such that newly inspired air reaches all of the alveoli
throughout both lungs at the same time and in approximately the same amount. This
results in an equal distribution of inspired air throughout all five lung lobes in a given
period of time. In total, there are approximately 23 airway divisions (generations) from
trachea to the level of the alveoli. These divisions include:
 Main bronchi.
 Lobar bronchi.
 Segmental bronchi (to designated bronchopulmonary segments).
The smallest bronchioles that do not have alveoli are lined completely by bronchial
epithelium, the terminal bronchioles as shown in Figure 2-2, which has been reproduced
from Hickey [14]. Although the base airway diameter decreases with branching, the
overall or total cross-sectional area increases significantly so that peripheral airway
resistance decreases. This means air flow deep inside the lung is a lot slower compare to
the airflow near trachea.
15
Figure 2-2 Schematic illustration of the number and dimensions of airways in adult lung and the structure
of the airway wall – Hickey [14]
2.2.4 Human lung morphology 
Knowledge of human lung morphology is essential to the study of particle deposition in

the airways as the fluid flow and the transportation of the particles are guided by the
geometry of the human airways. The lengths, diameters and bifurcating angles will affect
the fluid flow pattern significantly thus altering the particle deposition pattern. Figure 2-3,
reproduced from West [12], shows the various generations and zones of the entire human
lung airway. There are three main zones within the human lung; they are conducting,
transitional and respiratory zone.
16
One of the earliest adopted models of airway anatomy was the Weibel [15] model. Weibel
[15] book on the morphometry of the human lung summarised all the studies on
dimensions of human lung since 1844. He described in detail his approach to measuring
the dimensions of the human lung from trachea (generation 0) to alveolar level
(generation 20-23). Weibel constructed two models labelled as “Model A” and “Model B”.
These were based on regular dichotomy (bifurcating) and irregular dichotomy respectively.
Figure 2-3 Generations and Zones of the whole human lung airway (West [12])
In “Model A”, Weibel has disregarded the irregularities and focus on the regular features.
As the branching is regular, the number of elements in each generation z is nz   2 z . The
airways of this lung model has 23 generations (as shown in Figure 2-3). Generation 0 to 16
is the conductive zone, generations 17 to 19 (respiratory bronchioles) and 20 to 23
(alveolar ducts and sacs) are the transitory zone and bear alveoli as shown in Figure 2-3.
The diameter, length and cross section area for each generation are listed in Table 2-1
which has been reproduced from Weibel [15]. The airway model refers to an average sized
adult human lung at a degree of ¾ maximal inflation. It has a total air volume of about
4800 ml of which 66% is contained in the alveoli.
17
In “Model B”, Weibel [15] attempted to account for the irregular dichotomy of the lung by
applying a binomial distribution to the occurrence of airways with 2mm diameters with
respect to generation number. The distance from the root of the trachea, at which these
2mm bronchi occurred, was then described by a normal distribution with a mean of 24.5
cm. Asymmetries for the smaller airways (1.0-and 0.5-mm diameters) were then
estimated based on the assumption of normal distributions analogous to those used for
the 2mm-diameter airways. Thus, a model accounting for airway diameter and length
asymmetries had been developed. However, there were no defined measurements of the
irregular dichotomy in “Model B”.
Table 2-1 Dimensions of Weibel “Model A" – Reproduced from Weibel [15]
Gen Number per Cross section area
Name of Airway no. generation Diameter [cm] Length [cm] [mm^2]
Trachea 0 1 1.8 12 0.785398163
Main bronchus 1 2 1.22 4.76 3.141592654
Lobar bronchus 2 4 0.83 1.9 12.56637061
Lobar bronchus 3 8 0.56 0.76 50.26548246
Seg. bronchus 4 16 0.45 0.64 201.0619298
Seg. bronchus 5 32 0.35 1.07 804.2477193
Bronchus 6 64 0.28 0.9 3216.990877
Bronchus 7 128 0.23 0.76 12867.96351
Bronchus 8 256 0.186 0.64 51471.85404
Bronchus 9 512 0.154 0.54 205887.4161
Bronchus 10 1024 0.13 0.46 823549.6646
Term. Bronchus 11 2048 0.109 0.39 3294198.658
Term. Bronchus 12 4096 0.095 0.33 13176794.63
Bronchiole 13 8192 0.082 0.27 52707178.53
Bronchiole 14 16384 0.074 0.23 210828714.1
Bronchiole 15 32768 0.066 0.2 843314856.5
Ter. Bronchiole 16 65536 0.06 0.165 3373259426
Res. Bronchiole 17 131072 0.054 0.141 13493037705
Res. Bronchiole 18 262144 0.05 0.117 53972150818
Res. Bronchiole 19 524288 0.047 0.099 2.15889E+11
Alv. Duct 20 1048576 0.045 0.083 8.63554E+11
Alv. Duct 21 2097152 0.043 0.07 3.45422E+12
Alv. Duct 22 4194304 0.041 0.059 1.38169E+13
Alv. Duct 23 8388608 0.041 0.05 5.52675E+13
18
Horsfield, et al. [16] subsequently presented a more realistic model of the human lung by
considering asymmetry in the lung model. They measured the geometry of a resin cast of
a normal human bronchial tree down to branches of 0.7mm in diameter. The authors
suggested that airways asymmetry could be important in situations where it was
necessary to analyse the flow to different regions of the lung or to examine the effects of
gravity. The information obtained both from the original measurements and the
subsequent analysis was used to construct two mathematical models. These models
enabled the calculation of physiologic variables to be made while taking asymmetry into
account. Horsfield, et al. [16] measured branching angles and radius of curvature at the
origin of daughter branch, and calculated the flow percentage in the asymmetrical model.
It is important to note that in terms of lung morphology, the asymmetry occurs mostly for
the first four generations of the airways. The application of an asymmetrical model makes
the problem significantly more complex but, if the asymmetry for the lung is taken into
account, the deposition model will be more accurate.
The first approach in this research was to study the fluid flow and particle deposition in
the symmetrical geometry, as this in turn would be useful for airways after the 4 th
generations. After the symmetrical study, then the Horsfield model would be applied to
increase the accuracy of the particle deposition analysis.
19
Table 2-2 Horsfield airways model dimensions – Reproduced from Horsfield, et al. [16]
Branch No. Order Diameter, mm Length, mm E Flow, % of trachea Branching Angle R/d R
0 31 16 100 216544 100.0000%
1 28 12 50 98432 45.4559% 73 4.5 54
2 27 7.5 16 44416 20.5113% 48 3.5 26.25
3 26 7.3 1 30592 14.1274% 65 1.5 10.95
4 25 5 9 13760 6.3544% 28 0.5 2.5
5 24 5.5 11 13824 6.3839% 25 1.2 6.6
6 27 8 11 54016 24.9446% 44 6.3 50.4
7 26 6.5 18 43840 20.2453% 28 3 19.5
8 25 7 4.5 27008 12.4723% 17 2.7 18.9
9 24 5.5 7.5 16832 7.7730% 33 6.2 34.1
10 30 11.1 22 118112 54.5441% 35 3 33.3
11 26 7.3 15.6 47008 21.7083% 63 1.7 12.41
12 25 8.5 6.4 23776 10.9798% 18 4 34
13 29 8.9 26 71104 32.8358% 15 2.3 20.47
14 25 5.2 21 20800 9.6054% 61 8 41.6
15 28 6.4 8 50304 23.2304% 15 5.9 37.76
16 27 6 8.4 35392 16.3440% 8 11 66
17 26 6.2 14.8 27520 12.7087% 0 12.7 78.74
20 24 5.3 13.5 16832 7.7730% 14 4 21.2
23 23 3.5 11.5 7872 3.6353% 28 15.1 52.85
24 22 3.5 7.5 5952 2.7486% 8 8.7 30.45
25 20 5.5 8.5 10176 4.6993% 70 2.2 12.1
26 24 5 11.5 16832 7.7730% 36 18 90
28 20 5 8.5 10176 4.6993% 31 6 30
30 24 4 2 16832 7.7730% 40 4.2 16.8
31 19 4 13.4 6944 3.2067% 10 4 16
32 25 5.5 17 23232 10.7285% 33 1.9 10.45
33 24 4 10 10400 4.8027% 35 15.5 62
34 24 4.4 9.6 10400 4.8027% 18 13.1 57.64
35 21 4.4 6.2 14912 6.8864% 54 12.3 54.12
36 23 3.2 6.2 7872 3.6353% 58 14 44.8
37 25 4.8 6.8 13760 6.3544% 31 11.1 53.28
38 25 5.8 10.6 13760 6.3544% 35 8.9 51.62
20
2.3 Particle Deposition in the Human Respiratory System
2.3.1 Overview
This section describes some of the general studies on particle deposition in the human
respiratory system. In literature, there were numerous published studies related to the
prediction of deposition of particles in the lung system. These were based on models
could be classified into three types:
 Empirical Model (EM) – Sussman, et al. [3].
 Single-path model (SPM) – also known as the typical-path model – Yeh and Schum
[17].
 Multiple-path model (MPM) –Asgharian and Anjilvel [18].
The Empirical Model was based on data obtained experimentally, where the deposition of
loss particles in the lung was correlated to various loss parameters such as impaction,
sedimentation and diffusion. However, empirical models were considered crude in
computing the deposition of the particles and were generally only useful for quick and
simple calculations. This was particularly so because the true breathing parameters were
not included in the empirical model, as it employed limited particle matter (PM) risk
assessments.
The single-path model (SPM) employed an idealized geometry of the lung, which used one
typical pathway to represent the entire lung, as in Yeh and Schum [17]. By using various
loss formulae to calculate deposition in each region, the SPM enabled the simulation of
average regional deposition patterns. The lower airways of the human lung could be
reasonably assumed to be symmetrical, but there were major asymmetries in the upper
airways of the human tracheobronchial tree. Therefore, if one adopted this symmetrical
approach, it could result in incorrect deposition patterns and inaccurate apportionment of
21
airflow to the different lung lobes – this, in turn, could lead to inaccurate calculation of
particle deposition within the airways.
A multiple-path module (MPM) was developed by Asgharian and Anjilvel [18]. This model
incorporated the correct asymmetry of the airways in the lung branching structure and
calculated deposition at the individual airway level. The MPM could be used to predict
particle losses at specific sites or locations in the lung. However, the mathematical
formulation of this model for calculating particle losses was similar to the one employed in
SPM.
Particle deposition in human respiratory systems had generally been researched with two
major objectives.
(i) To study pharmaceutical drug delivery into the human respiratory system
(ii) To study the local deposition of pollutants with the aim of determining the cause
of lung diseases
The determination of the deposition of pharmaceuticals had been reported widely in

literature, including books. One of the books that summarized some of the major research
was edited by Hickey [14]. Hickey’s work was divided into three key components,
specifically:
 Aerodynamic behaviour of particles in human airways
 Biological considerations of the aerosols describing how the drug interact with
human airways
 The pharmaceutical technology related to particle generation
The first chapter of Hickey’s book was authored by Martonen and Yang [19]. Their
objective was to demonstrate how aerosolized drugs could be targeted to relatively well-
22
defined regions within the human respiratory tract. This was achieved by understanding
the relative roles of the factors that affected airborne motion and subsequent deposition
of inhaled particles.
As described by Martonen and Yang [19], particles were transported convectively with air
intake. All particles experienced a non-zero chance of being deposited during the course
of their path from nasal or mouth sources down to the alveolar sacs. The deposition
patterns of inhaled particles could be expressed as a function of three variables:
 Aerosol characteristics
 Ventilatory parameters (Breathing pattern)
 Respiratory tract morphologies.
The aerosol characteristics were the properties of the particles being inhaled into the lung.
The particle size, material, density, shape, porosity were all factors related to the aerosol
characteristics. The ventilatory parameter was the breathing pattern, but there were
minimal variations in breathing pattern for an individual person – in general air flow
follows a sine curve form.
2.3.2 Particle deposition at head and throat
Although particle deposition at the head and throat is not a primary interest in this
research, it is important to have an insight into estimates of the number of particles that
pass through the nasal and throat. At the head and throat airways, Martonen and Yang
23
[19] has proposed that the head and throat acted as a filter through which particles could
transport into the trachea – this is described as a mathematical function.
[ ( )][ ( )] 2-1
where
 M is the mass of inhaled aerosol
 Mi is the quantity that penetrates to the trachea
 p(m) and p(l) are the particle deposition efficiencies within the oropharygeal
region and larynx respectively.
Empirical formulations for p(m) and p(l) were presented by Martonen [20]. Most particles
in pollutants are normally deposited at the oropharyngeal and larynx region as it is the
first defence mechanism for the human lung to avoid pollutant particles. This applies to
drug particles as well – however, it is generally the case that the instructions for using
inhalers are to take a deep breath, which causes more pharmaceutical particles to transfer
into the lung.
2.3.3 Mechanisms of particle deposition
The actual transport mechanism and the manner in which particles are deposited
depended on the forces acting on the particles. The methods for particles being
deposited onto the airway surface can therefore be described by the transport
mechanisms.
24
The major transport mechanisms acting on particles in the respiratory system are:
 Impaction due to inertia of particles.
 Sedimentation due to gravitational forces.
 Diffusion related to the Brownian motion of surrounding gases as illustrated in

Figure 2-4 which has been reproduced from Martonen [20].
These forces causes particles to diverge or separate from airflow streamlines and thereby
touch the airway surfaces lined with mucus, causing particles to stick onto the airway’s
wall resulting particle deposition. There are other minor mechanisms that can cause
deposition (Chan and Yu [21], Chan, et al. [22], Versteeg and Malalasekera [23]), such as:
 Cloud motion.
 Interception.
 Electric charge effects.
In general, hazardous and pharmaceutical particles were not heavily charged and
therefore particle transport of these in the human respiratory tract was primarily
governed by mechanical transport.
25
Figure 2-4 Illustration of particle transport mechanisms onto airway surfaces (Martonen [20])
The types of mechanisms transfer are as:
(i) Inertial Impaction Transport - In branching network of airways, the inspired air is
changing its velocity and direction of motion all the time while it is penetrating into
the lungs. Particles carried with the air are therefore exposed to inertial forces all
the time. For particles of sufficient mass, these forces result in an inertial
displacement and thus in a particle transport toward airway surfaces. Due to the
26
velocity-dependence nature of inertial impaction transport mechanism, it is
anticipated that inertial deposition of particles in the respiratory tract occurs
mainly in regions of maximum airflow velocity such as in large airways. This is the
major study of this thesis.
(ii) Sedimentation Transport - Particles of sufficient mass maybe sedimentated due to

gravity when residence times within airways are large. Because of the time-
dependence nature of sedimentation particle transport, it is anticipated that
gravitational deposition of particles occurs mainly in lung regions of maximum
residence time of the tidal air such as small airways and the lung periphery.
(iii) Diffusion Transport - Aerosol particles of dimensions comparable with the mean
free path of gas molecules (about 0.06 m) recognize their gaseous surroundings
as composed of individual molecules, and every collision of a particle with a gas
molecule changes its kinetic energy and direction of motion; as a result, the
particle moves at random through the gas (Brownian motion or diffusion). The
random displacement of a particle covers by diffusion transport increases with
time and with decreasing particle diameter. It is independent of the particle
density. In the human respiratory tract, only ultrafine particles (particles with
diameter smaller than 0.1 m) are deposited solely due to diffusion. For all
ultrafine particles of the same size, deposition is the same regardless of their
density. As a result of the time-dependence of diffusion particle transport, it is
anticipated that diffusion deposition of ultrafine particles occurs mainly in lung
regions of maximum residence time of the tidal air such that in small airways and
in the lung periphery.
These three deposition mechanisms need to be considered when studying particle

deposition in human lung. It is true that in the upper airways, where the air flow velocity is
high, the chance for inertial transport deposition will be the highest.
27
2.3.4 Mathematical Particle Deposition Models
There is a history of respiratory modelling in relation to particle deposition which is well

described by Swift [24]. In general, early models were simple formulation and became
more detailed as they were improved over years of research.
An early mathematical model was presented by Findeisen [25]. He divided the respiratory
tract into nine generations only. His model began with the trachea, progressing through
three orders of bronchi and two orders of bronchioles and terminating with alveolar ducts
and sacs. Findeisen [25] assumed branching factors, dimensions, flow speeds and transit
times for each generation. He assumed a normal breathing pattern of two seconds
inhalation and two seconds of exhalation with a tidal volume of 400 cm3 leading to a
constant flow rate of 200 cm3 per second. Findeisen assumed simple expressions for the
deposition of particles in each generation resulting from the three mechanisms described
in 2.3.3. He assumed that the particles were spherical in shape and their density was 1 g/
cm3. He calculated deposition in each generation for seven particle diameters:
 0.03 µm
 0.1 µm
 0.3 µm
 1.0 µm
 3.0 µm
 10 µm
 30 µm.
For the three smallest sizes, the total deposition fraction in the respiratory tract was
respectively 68%, 35% and 34%, the deposition being essentially confined to the last two
28
generations. For 1.0 µm diameter particles, Findeisen calculated 97.4% total deposition,
while for the two largest diameters the deposition was 100%. For 1 µm diameter,
deposition was still primarily in the last two generations, but as particle diameter
increased, the site of deposition moved proximally with the 30 µm diameter particles all
being deposited in the 1st generation trachea.
Over the years, the model by Findeisen was improved by researchers including Landahl
[26] and Beekmans [27]. Generally the improvements occurred through consideration of
an increased number of generations and inclusion of the nasal and oral passage.
Subsequent research led to a model of particle deposition that had wider use and was
documented in the report by the Task-Group-on-Lung-Dynamics [28] (TGLD) to the
International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP). This was because, at the time,
radiation impact on human health was a major concern. The model employed a slightly
modified version of the Findeisen [25] lung morphology, while having the additional
compartment of nasopharyngeal airway. The empirical equation used was developed by
Pattle [29] for the inspiratory nasal deposition
( ) 2-2
where
 =particle density, gcm-3;
 dp=particlde diameter, µm,
 Q=flow rate, cm3sec-1.
The Task Group lung deposition model was intended for radiation protection purposes but
it was widely applied in other situations including outdoor pollutant particles and
occupationally related aerosols.
29
Mathematical particle deposition modelling is useful in determining the particle efficiency
in general. The drawbacks of the models are that they only provide overall deposition.
Therefore, risk assessment of inhaled particles is difficult to achieve because it requires
information on local deposition patterns with lung regions. In fact, creating a
mathematical model also requires enormous amounts of data and making assumptions on
limited amounts of particle sizes and breathing parameters in specific human subject.
There were other methods, however, that facilitated the determination of the local
deposition, either by lung cast experiment or by using computational models (discussed
later in this chapter).
30
2.4 Related Studies of Particle Deposition in the Human Respiratory
System
2.4.1 Overview
Particle deposition in the human respiratory system was a very broad topic, covering
many areas. Studies that were indirectly related to particle deposition were those
examining the fluid flow in the human respiratory system. Of these, the studies that were
of relevance here were the mathematical models, experimental studies and
computational studies. This section will describe the studies of fluid flow in human
airways and specific experimental studies of particle deposition.
2.4.2 Fluid flow studies in the view to study particle deposition
One of the pioneering works undertaken on fluid flow in human airways was by Dekker
[30] who studied the transition between laminar and turbulent flow in the human trachea.
This study focused on measuring the critical velocity where turbulence would appear in 21
transparent human lung casts using water and air as the medium. The results showed that
the critical flow velocity of air moving through tracheal casts (without the larynx) averaged
approximately 350ml of air per second. With the glottis opened into a more natural
position, the critical inspiratory flow velocity was higher, approximately by 100 ml of air
per second. The conclusion was that air flow in the trachea of most individuals was
probably turbulent during the greater part of normal respiratory activity.
Schroter and Sudlow [31] studied the fluid flow phenomena in two successive generations
of large scaled symmetrical models of typical junctions of human bronchial tree. The
31
symmetrical Y-shaped scale models were manufactured using Perspex. Flow visualisation
experiments were conducted on a single junction for Reynolds Numbers in the range from
50 to 4500 by using fine tracers of smoke. Details of velocity profile measurements were
taken for flow through two generations of bifurcation for Reynolds Numbers of 100-1500
using hot wire probes. Secondary flows were also observed at all flow rates for both
inspiration and expiration regardless of the form of the entry profile. For inspiration, a pair
of vortices resulted at the daughter tube. For the expiration case, the impinging flows
merged from daughter tubes causing the flow to form four vortices in the parent tube.
The studies concluded that flow patterns in the bronchial tree were found to be complex
and the assumption of laminar flow was not reasonable. They also found that each
junction disturbed the flow, and the disturbances might not be dissipated before the next
junction. Flow separation had been observed for the model where the outer wall
curvature was small. However, no discussion was given on the effect of Reynolds Number
on flow separation.
Most of the early experimental work had studied one or two generation symmetric
bifurcations to model human airways. Chang and Masry [32] constructed a four
generation asymmetric model of the human central airways using the lung geometry
reported by Horsfield, et al. [16]. Chang and Masry [32] used the same model to study the
steady axial velocity profiles; the secondary flow characteristics (Isabey and Chang [33]),
and velocity profiles during oscillatory flows (Menon, et al. [34]). The model was a 3:1
scale rigid model of the first 3-4 generations of human central airways from the trachea to
the five lobar bronchi. The model had been constructed from blocks of clear acrylic plastic
and circular tubes.
In the first part of their study Chang and Masry [32] employed two steady tracheal flow
rates of 5.0 L/sec and 1.2 L/sec corresponding to Reynolds Numbers of 2123 and 8846 at
the trachea. Comprehensive results of the velocity profile for both inspiratory and
32
expiratory flow were measured using hot wire probes. They also compared different flow
entrance conditions – one of these was flat entrance inviscid flow, and the other was
narrow jet (modelling the glottic aperture). These inlet conditions showed that the
inspiratory flow velocity profiles in the frontal plane developed a high degree of
asymmetry in all branches, with peak velocities near the inner wall of the bifurcation.
During expiratory flow, the velocity profiles were nearly symmetric, exhibiting a single
peak near the centre in the bifurcation plane and almost flat in the normal plane. These
flow characteristics were found to be independent of Reynolds Number but very
dependent on the local geometry. Flow separation was observed in the right upper lobar
bronchus. The authors suggested that the right upper lobar bronchus was a more likely
site for particle deposition than other branches due to flow separation. In the second part
of their studies, Isabey and Chang [33] concluded that secondary motion was also highly
sensitive to geometrical asymmetry. In the geometry they employed, the secondary flows
never exceeded 21.5% of the mean axial flow in either the expiratory direction or the
inspiratory direction. The maximum secondary velocities were observed near the wall.
Isabey and Chang also noted that more investigation of velocities in the boundary layer
was required in order to gain insight on secondary motion, as the measurements of
secondary flow using hot wire anemometry posed a problem for small velocity values.
Early studies of airflow dynamics in the airways were generally based on highly idealized
geometries and steady flow. Menon, et al. [34] in Part III, studied the velocity profiles
under oscillatory flow on the same physiology realistic asymmetry airway model. The
oscillatory flow they used was a sinusoidal flow.
One of the important parameters that dictated the effect of the periodically imposed
pressure gradient was the Womersley Number defined as
33
d 
 2-3
2 
where
 d is diameter of the tube,
  is angular frequency (=2f),
 f is the frequency of the breathing,
  is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid.
At a low Womersley Number, the flow is quasi-steady, such that the fluid particles
everywhere in the tube respond instantaneously to the applied pressure gradient. When
the value of the Womersley Number is large, the motions of the laminae close to the tube
wall follow the pressure gradient more closely than the laminae in the tube core which
show phase lags to the imposed pressure gradient.
Menon, et al. [34] also studied the influence of the oscillatory flow on the axial growth of
the viscous boundary layer. In general, the viscous boundary layer developed faster with
an oscillatory flow. Many of the previous studies (including Schroter and Sudlow [31],
Chang and Masry [32], Isabey and Chang [33]) argued that, for normal quiet breathing,
the airflow in the central airways should be quasi-steady. One of the objectives of the
study of Menon, et al. [34] was to validate the previous measurements, which used steady
flows, and to establish the criteria under which oscillating flows could be approximated by
steady flow. The measurements using hot wired probes indicated that the entry flow
profile into the model during oscillatory flow was flat. For low frequencies, the velocity
profile at peak flow rate resembled the profiles seen under steady flow conditions at the
corresponding Reynolds Number. As the frequency increased the velocity profiles
throughout most branches tended to flatten, except in the right upper lobar bronchus
34
where the skewed velocity profiles persisted even at the highest frequencies studied, due
to the sharp bend of the airway geometry.
Menon, et al. [34] determined that the nature of the velocity profile was strongly
influenced by the airway geometry under oscillatory flow. The critical value for the
Womersley Number was 16, where the velocity profiles resembled steady flow profiles at
comparable Reynolds Numbers for steady flow. However, their model had not simulated
normal and exercised breathing. The simulated curve was a sinusoidal curve that had not
taken into account the exact breathing cycle curve.
With the advances in Laser technology, Zhao and Lieber [8] were the first to use Laser
Doppler Anemometry to study fluid flow bifurcation. They employed inspiratory flow
(Zhao and Lieber [8]), expiratory flow (Zhao and Lieber [35]) and oscillatory flow (Lieber
and Zhao [36]) inside a symmetric bifurcation model.
As noted in Zhao and Lieber [35] in their expiratory flow paper, in contrast to inspiration,
the expiratory phase had received much less attention, and only fragments of information
regarding flow patterns in a typical junction during this phase of the respiration cycle were
available. They (Zhao and Lieber [35]) also noted that secondary motion acquired
momentum from the axial flow and with the added complexity of colliding streams
bringing about interesting flow phenomena. A detailed understanding of secondary flow
patterns could help to explain the deformation of axial velocity profiles and provide useful
information for determining the fate of airborne particles that were deposited in the
airways during expiration. Their experiment (Zhao and Lieber [35]) employed a model of
symmetric bifurcation to simulate steady expiratory flow in the upper part of the human
central airways. A two colour, 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, 2089, corresponding to Dean Numbers of 98, 196, and 395 respectively.
35
2.4.3 Experimental study of particle deposition
Experimental studies related to particle deposition in human airways are rare. This is due
to the complexity of the air flow condition, difficulties with the generation of particles and
obtaining a lung cast.
Early experimental studies (Ferron [37],Myojo [38], Myojo [39],Kim and Iglesias [40], Kim
and Garcia [41], Kim and M.Fisher [42]) employed a simple bifurcation model with the
idealised geometry from Weibel [15] to determine the particle deposition patterns. These
studies were useful in understanding the flow pattern and deposition mechanisms. As
mentioned previously, however, the application of an idealised geometry will not facilitate
the determination of particle distribution for each lung lobe.
Another collection of particle deposition experiments (Sussman, et al. [2], Chan, et al. [22],
Schlesinger and Lippmann [43], Schlesinger, et al. [44], Gurman, et al. [45], Cohen, et al.
[46], Cheng, et al. [47]) used realistic airway replicas made from human cadavers.
Deposition data obtained from lung cast experiments suffered from large variations
however, and the data was more difficult to interpret or formulate into a model. The
results highlighted the degree of difference that arose when comparing experimental
results with theoretical models.
More recent studies were conducted by Zhou and Cheng [48] and these used a real
replication of the human airways that included the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, trachea
and four generations of bronchi. Zhou and Cheng studied nine different sizes of
monodispersed, polystyrene latex fluorescent particles, ranging from 0.93 to 30 microns
at three different constant flow rates of:
 15
 30
36
 60 litres per minute.
Zhou and Cheng formulated the deposition efficiency as a function of the Stokes Number.
In their study they created a lung cast from a cadaver, using a small-scale powder
disperser. An empirical model was developed for the particle deposition efficiency in the
tracheobronchial region based on their experimental data.
In general, experimental studies involve significant time, effort and cost. The lung casting
and supporting experimental equipment are expensive and it is also costly to vary
conditions in a physical system. For this reason, in this research, the use of computational
fluid dynamics for the modelling of particle deposition was seen to be a more effective
and flexible approach.
37
2.5 Computational Fluid Dynamics and Modelling
2.5.1 Overview
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is a computer-based tool for simulating the

behaviour of systems involving fluid flow, heat transfer, and other related physical
processes. It works by solving the equations of fluid flow (in a special form) over a region
of interest, with specified (known) conditions on the boundary of that region.
In the biomedical field, there are many applications involve fluid flow, heat exchange and
particles tracking in the human body and in biomedical devices. Some typical examples are:
 aerosol drug delivery;
 blood pumps;
 artificial heart valves;
 blood oxygenators;
 filtration devices;
 needles and catheters;
 tubing;
 diagnostic equipment.
Transport processes can include the effects of:
 electrical fields;
 osmosis;
 multiple phases;
38
 deposition of particles;
 deformation of solid regions surrounding fluids;
 chemical reactions.
CFD analysis offers details of fluid pressures, velocities, solute or particle concentrations,
temperatures, stresses, and heat/mass fluxes throughout the flow domain by solving the
governing equations using specified boundary conditions. At the post processing stage,
computation results on flow parameters can be displayed in different formats, this
including color-coded graphics, contour charts, vector diagrams, which helps to provide
insight into physical mechanisms affecting the operation of a particular device. CFD results
can also be exported in excel data to perform 2D analysis. CFD software users can readily
modify model geometry, boundary conditions, or physical material properties to
determine the effects on the system due to different conditions. As a result, CFD is
suitable for conducting parametric studies, making it possible to evaluate design
alternatives than the build and test method, in this manner allowing for faster
performance optimization, significant reduction of design cycle time, reduction of the cost
while improving the time to the market depending on the products.
Experiments using physical (in vitro) and animal models (in vivo) will continue to have a
dominant role in testing design of medical devices in the near future as of 2011 due to the
fact that medical devices are interfacing with human, it is far more convincing to
demonstrate physical experimental results than CFD analysis, however, it has some
significant disadvantages that explain the increasing emphasis many major medical device
manufacturers are placing on computer simulation. One example is that experiments
which take a long period of time to perform are expensive and may involve risk to animal
or even human subjects. For these reasons, medical device manufacturers are turning to
39
computer simulation for evaluating the relative performance of various design
alternatives to ensure that the most effective ones reach the market.
Another major drawback with physical experiment concerns the limited quantity and
quality of the data that is generated. Such data is obtained only at particular locations
where measurements can be made. On the other hand, computer simulations can provide
as many calculations, as many relevant parameters, and as many locations as the analyst
requires to improve the product during the design phase. Numerical simulation also
eliminates the problem of data scatter caused by difficulties in maintaining uniform
experimental conditions.
One of the classic example of the uses of CFD is demonstrated by Medtronic Incorporation
is the design of blood handling devices by Pederson and Karlsen [49]. This case study is
extracted from ANSYS CFX (commercial CFD software package) User Manual. According to
ANSYS Documentation [50] Medtronic utilize ANSYS CFX as their integral part of the
design optimization process for blood pumps (heart) and oxygenators (lung) used in open-
heart surgery. One design objective for such devices is to minimize mechanical and
thermal stresses that can cause damage to blood cells in the artificial circulation. The
BioMedicus Biopump, type of blood pump manufactured by Medtronic, is composed of
three rotating cones that produce a centrifugal effect for drawing blood from an inlet port.
Optimization of the blood pump performance required prediction of magnitude and
distribution of pressure, temperature, and shear stress fields, and residence time of fragile
blood cells within the pump cavity. Flow in the BioMedicus Biopump was simulated using
a geometrically accurate computational domain to determine the critical flow parameters.
After six months of utilizing CFD technology, Medtronic claimed that the hardware and
software expenses were recovered through improvements in product design efficiency
and a major decrease in time-to market for new product designs. The ability to modify late
in the design cycle using CFD results was therefore valuable because rebuilding and
40
conducting physical testing of prototypes at this stage was a very expensive process. This
shows that the significant of CFD technology plays an important role in product design
phase, this is not limiting CFD technology for Biomedical devices, this also applies for
many different engineering applications. The next section will describe some of the theory
behind CFD technology.
2.5.2 Governing equations of fluid flow in human airways
This section presents the derivation of the governing equations of fluid flow which are the
equations that are required to be solved in the simulations presented in later chapters.
The derivation presented here is largely based on a reading of Versteeg and Malalasekera
[23]. The governing equations of fluid flow represent two statements of conservation laws
of physics.
(i) Conservation of mass of the fluid – mass cannot be create or destroyed
(ii) Conservation of momentum – sum of the forces on a fluid particle equals to rate of
change of momentum (Newton’s second law).
The analysis of fluid flow being considered is at macroscopic level at 1m where molecular
structure and molecular motions are ignored. The fluid considered is a continuous
medium. At macroscopic level, the fluid element contains properties such as pressure,
velocity, density, temperature and their space and time derivatives. Consider a small
element of fluid with sides x, y, z as shown in Figure 2-5.
41
Figure 2-5 Fluid element for conservation laws
The fluid element has six faces, North (N), South (S), East (E), West(W), Top (T) and Bottom
(B). The right-handed Cartesian system is used and the positive direction is shown in the
figure. The fluid element centre is located at position (x,y,z). Consider the fluid properties
are functions of space and time, each of the property can be written as:
 (x,y,z,t).
 p(x,y,z,t).
 T(x,y,z,t).
 u(x,y,z,t).
for the density, pressure, temperature and the velocity vector respectively.
The fluid properties at the faces can be expressed accurately by a 2nd degree Taylor series
polynomial by assuming the fluid element is finitely small. Taking the pressure at the East
42
(E) and West (W) faces in which they are both at a distance of from the element
centre can be expressed as
p 1
p x
x 2
p 1
p x
x 2
2.5.3 Mass conservation in three dimensions
The rate of increase of mass in the fluid element is defined as:

xyz    xyz 2-4
t t
In Equation 2-4, the mass of the fluid element changes in time depending on the density
of the fluid element multiply by the volume of the element. Assuming there is mass flow
rate across the fluid element, this is given by the product of area, density and the average
velocity component normal to the face. As shown in Figure 2-6, the mass flow rate in and
out of the fluid element across its boundaries is given by:
43
  u  1    u  1 
 u  x yz   u  x yz
 x 2   x 2 
  v  1   v  1 
  v  y xz   v  y xz
 y 2   y 2 
  w 1    w 1 
  w  z xy   w  z xy
 z 2   z 2  2-5
Figure 2-6 Mass flows in and out of fluid element.
Mass flow in and out must be balance with the rate of increase of mass in the fluid
element. By equating equation 2-4 and 2-5 and divide both sides with xyz , the
equation will become:
 u  v  w

   0
t x y z 2-6
Or in more compact vector notation
44

 div u   0
t 2-7
Equation 2-7 is the called the unsteady, three-dimensional mass conservation or

continuity equation at a point in a compressible fluid. The first term of the equation is the
rate of change in time of the density (mass per unit volume). The second term of the
equation describes the net flow of mass out of the element across its boundaries and is
called the convective term. For an incompressible fluid, the density  is constant with
respect to time. Equation (2-7) then becomes
divu  0 or u  0 2-8
Or in longhand notation
u v w
  0
x y z 2-9
45
2.5.4 Momentum equation in three dimensions
Assume that the common properties such as density, pressure, temperature and velocity
of the particle are function of the position (x, y, z) of the particle and time t. Let the value
of a property per unit mass be denoted by . The total derivative of property  with
respect to time can be written as D/Dt, where it represents:
D   dx  dy  dz
   
Dt t x dt y dt z dt 2-10
Newton’s second law states that sum of the forces on the particle equals to the rate of
change of momentum of a fluid particle. The rates of increase of x-, y- and z- momentum
per unit volume of a fluid particle are given by
Du Dv Dw
  
Dt Dt Dt 2-11
There are two types of forces acting on the fluid particles. Surface forces are pressure and
viscous forces. Body forces are gravity, centrifugal, Coriolis and electromagnetic.
On each face of the fluid element, there is one normal stress p (pressure) component and
three viscous stress  component. There are in total of 9 different viscous stress as shown
in Figure 2-7. The suffix notation of the viscous stress  ij is applied to indicate the direction
of the viscous stresses. The suffices i and j in  ij indicate that the stress component acts in
the j-direction on a surface normal to the i-direction.
46
Figure 2-7 Stress components on three faces of fluid element
Consider only the x component of the forces due to pressure p and stress components  xx ,
 yx and  zx as shown in Figure 2-8. Therefore in x-direction, the net force is the sum of
the force components acting in that direction on the fluid element.
Figure 2-8 Stress components in the x-direction
On the East (E) and West (W) faces, the sum of forces is:
47
 p 1    xx 1 
 p  x 2 x    xx  x 2 x yz
   
  p 1    1 
   p  x    xx  xx x yz
  x 2   x 2 
 p  
    xx xyz
 x x  2-12
On the North (N) and South (S) faces, the sum of forces is:
  yx 1    yx 1   yx
  yx  y xz   yx  y xz  xyz
 y 2   y 2  y
2-13
Finally, on the Top (T) and Bottom (B), the sum of forces is:
  1    1  
  zx  zx z xy   zx  zx z xy  zx xyz
 z 2   z 2  z 2-14
The total force per unit volume on the fluid due to these surface stresses is equal to the
sum of (2-12), (2-13) and (2-14) divided by the volume xyz :
 p   xx   yx  zx
 
x y z 2-15
Assuming S Mx is the source term containing the body forces. The suffix Mx denotes it is
the x-momentum per unit volume per unit time. The x-component of the momentum
equation is found by setting the rate of change of x-momentum of the fluid particle (2-11)
equal to the total force in the x-direction on the element due to the surface stress (2-15)
plus the rate of increase of x-momentum due to sources:
48
Du  p   xx   yx  zx
     S Mx
Dt x y z 2-16
Same apply to y direction and z direction:
Dv  xy  p   yy   zy
     S My
Dt x y z 2-17
Dw  xz  yz  p   zz 
     S Mz
Dt x y z 2-18
The source terms S Mx , S My and S Mz in equations 2-16, 2-17 and 2-18 are component of the
body forces only. For example, to model the body force due to gravity, S Mx  0 , S My  0
and S Mz   g .
2.5.5 Navier-Stokes equations for a Newtonian fluid
In a Newtonian fluid, the viscous stresses are proportional to the rates of deformation.
Newton’s Law of Viscosity for compressible flows contains two constants of
proportionality and they are:
 Dynamic viscosity,  , to relate stress to linear deformations
 Viscosity,  , to relate stresses to the volumetric deformation.
The nine viscous stress components are:
49
u
 xx  2  divu
x
v
 yy  2  divu
y
w
 zz  2  divu
z
 u v 
 xy   yx     
 y x 
 u w 
 xz   zx     
 z x 
 v w 
 yz   zy     
 z y  2-19
For gases a good approximation can be obtained by taking the value
2
 .
3
Liquids are incompressible so the mass conservation equation is
divu  0
and the viscous stress are twice the local rate of linear deformation times the dynamic
viscosity. Substituting the shear stress equations (2-19) into (2-16, 2-17 & 2-18) produces
the Navier Stokes Equations:
50
Du p   u     u v 
    2   divu       
Dt x x  x  y   y x 
   u w 
      S Mx
z   z x 
Dv p    u v    v 
          2  divu
Dt y x   y x  y  y 
   v w 
      S My
z   z y 
Dw p    u w     v w 
            
Dt z x   z x  y   z y 
  w 
  2  divu  S Mz
z  z  2-20
To reduce the long mathematic terms, it is often rearrange by grouping viscous stress
terms, for x-component, the equation can become:
  u     u w     u w 
 2   div u             
x  x  y   y x  z   z x 
  u    u    u 
        
x  x  y  y  z  z 
   u    v    w  
            div u 
 x  x  y  x  z  x  x
 div  grad u   S Mx
The viscous stress balance for y- and z component can be written in the same form.
However to simplify the equation further, the insignificant viscous stress term can be
considered inside the source term:
S M  S M  sM 2-21
51
Where
   u v     u w 
sM          
y   y x  z   z x 
To help the development of the finite volume method, the Navier-Stokes equations can be
written in this form:
Du p
   div  grad u   S Mx
Dt x
Dv p
   div  grad v   S My
Dt y
Dw p
   div  grad w   S Mx
Dt z 2-22
These are the most important transport equations which governs the fluid flow inside the
human airways.
52
2.6 Application of CFD to Modelling of Biological Systems
2.6.1 Overview
At the time this research program commenced, the application of CFD to the modelling of
biological systems had already become widespread, largely due to the increased
availability of computing power and the relative cost and flexibility advantages over the
creation of physical models and experimental rigs. The results of CFD modelling were
generally regarded as highly accurate.
2.6.2 CFD modelling of fluid flow in human airways
In the field of fluid flow in human airways, there tended to be more articles that combined
the study of particle deposition together with fluid flow, rather than having fluid flow
studied in isolation. This section here will only describe numerical studies which looked at
fluid flow in the airways.
One of the early numerical studies which had been cited by many researches was
undertaken by Wilquem and Degrez [51]. They numerically studied a steady inspiratory
airflow through a three-generation model of human airways in two dimensions. The
three-generation model correspond to the fifth to seventh generation of Weibel [15]’s
model. Their study was restricted to two dimensions because of the lack of available
computer power. As noted in their study, Wilquem and Degrez had great difficulty in
generating grids for the bifurcation model. They overcame the problem by adapting a non-
overlapping multi-block technique. Their two dimensional simulation results did not,
however, replicate realistic human airway fluid flow as they concluded that flow
53
separation exists with low Reynolds Numbers that range from 200 to 1200. Similar studies
done by Gatlin, et al. [52] demonstrated different results because their computational
model was three dimensional.
Around the same era, Elad, et al. [53] created a computational model of oscillatory airflow
in a bronchial bifurcation. Their system or model parameters were time-dependent and
were extracted from laboratory studies of airway models and physiological measurements.
This was one of the first models that uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to study
fluid flow in airways until Calay, et al. [54].
Calay, et al. [54] utilised CFD to study the unsteady respiratory airflow dynamics within
the human airways. The three dimensional asymmetric bifurcation model that they
employed was based on the morphological data given by Horsfield, et al. [16]. The CFD
simulation used two breathing conditions – that is, resting and exercise. They found that
flow separation occurred for the maximal exercise condition where the Reynolds Number
was with the Womersley Number α at 4.747.
Subsequently, Liu, et al. [55] performed similar simulations to Calay, et al. [54] with the
addition of the pressure drop analysis, where a correlation between pressure drop
coefficient and Reynolds Number was found. Later, they published another paper which
considered the asymmetric human lung airways in Liu, et al. [56].
As noted by Calay, et al. [54], fluid flow in human airways during exercise will become
turbulent flow. Luo, et al. [57] used large eddy simulations (a type of turbulence model
inside a commercial package called Fluent [58] to model the fluid flow in a simple airway
model. They concluded that LES was one of the feasible CFD modelling techniques to
model the fluid flow in human airways and they validated their results with Martonen, et
al. [9].
54
More recently, studies on this topic were performed by Leong, et al. [59]. This was
another study of fluid flow in a double bifurcation, and while the findings yielded no
surprises, the unique element of their study was that they utilised Particle Image
Velocimetry (PIV) to measure velocity data in the double bifurcation. This was one of the
newer sets of published experimental data.
Another more recent study was undertaken by Freitas and Schröder [60], who also used a
CFD technique. However, the solver employed the Lattice-Boltzmann method (LBM)
rather than finite volume method, thereby demonstrating that the LBM can be used as an
alternative to solve the fluid flow equations in human airways.
There were also a large number of numerical studies on fluid flow in the smaller airways
deeper inside the lung (e.g., Sharan and Singh [61], Hammersley, et al. [62]) which only
indirectly related to the current topic.
To conclude, fluid flow plays an important role in particle transportation and deposition.
The studies cited here provided valuable information on how fluid flow behaves in human
airways in both steady and oscillatory flow. The manner in which particles behave in the
human airways will be described in Section 2.6.3.
55
2.6.3 CFD modelling of particle deposition in human airways
At the time this research was undertaken, numerical methods had been used to model
particle deposition in the human airways. The flow field; particle trajectory and
deposition have been calculated by means of solving corresponding equations. Earlier
studies considered the flow field as steady flow (e.g., Diu and Yu [63], Gradon and Orlicki
[64], Lee and Goo [65], Asgharian and Anjilvel [18], Zhang, et al. [66], Comer, et al. [67]).
The numerical results for fluid flow and particle deposition had been reported by Zhang,
et al. [66], and Comer, et al. [67], but these simulations were carried out using a steady
flow, and the particles were injected at a constant rate. The problem was that human
breathing was not a constant flow process, so it was important to study the transient
effects on particle deposition. These factors were partially addressed by the recent work
of Li, et al. [68] and Zhang and Kleinstreuer [10]. At the time of compiling this review, CFD
modelling of particle deposition had primarily been conducted by a single group of
research from the North Carolina State University. These researchers had been using CFX
as the computer simulation tool as described in Zhang and Kleinstreuer [10], Kleinstreuer,
et al. [69]. However, their research had not evolved significantly over the decade since
their first CFD modelling paper till this review was conducted.
A more recent study by Comerford, et al. [70] used a co-axial tomography (CT) scan to
create the lung geometries and employed fluid structure interaction simulations.
Comerford’s study was patient specific and it considered only nanoparticles – it did not
formulate a generic particle deposition which facilitated the generalisation of the result to
the average adult. Therefore, a more comprehensive study was still necessary in order to
determine the transient particle patterns in a real model of human airways – this was the
basis of the research presented herein.
As there was a gap in relation to CFD studies in the area of particle deposition in the
human respiratory system, it was logical in this research to endeavour to use CFD as the
56
main approach. The novelty of the CFD approach in this research program was to be that
new assumptions were to be used – for example, how boundary conditions should be set,
and the type of turbulence model to be used.
57
2.7 Conclusions and Research Directions
The literature review provided both basic information on the structure of the human
respiratory system as well as research into modelling flow and particle deposition through
various techniques, including physical experimentation and simulation modelling through
CFD. The review highlighted earlier work and achievements as well as gaps that previous
researchers had identified. This research was structured to endeavour to address some of
these gaps.
In summary, a reading of basic literature on the respiratory system leads to the

understanding that the human lung is composed of bifurcating networks. The first
generation of the bifurcating network is the trachea, which is referred to as Generation 0
and it splits into two child branches called the main bronchus which are referred to as
Generation 1 of the airways. The interesting point about human airways is that the
velocity increases from Generation 0 to Generation 3, then monotonically decreases down
the generations. The Reynolds Number decreases monotonically down the generations.
If the Stokes Number is calculated with the same density and size along the human
airways, assuming a particle to be travelling at the speed of the flow, the maximum Stokes
Number is at generation 5. The key point of emphasis here is that it is onerous to relate
particle efficiency with just the Reynolds Number and Stokes number, as the airway
geometry is very complex.
It is also clear from the reviewed literature that it is difficult and costly to conduct full
particle deposition experiments using a lung cast, and the flexibility of experiments is
limited. The literature reported many attempts at developing computer based modelling
techniques as a more efficacious approach. This research program endeavoured to
pursue a simulation approach based on CFD modelling.
58
The first step in the modelling process in this research was therefore to create a simple
bifurcation model that had sufficient similarity to the human lung bifurcation. When
compared against existing experimental data, this could then be used to validate the CFD
model of the human lung. In fact, a more general particle deposition empirical formula
was additionally required for the upper airways.
In this research, a detailed computer simulation was to be developed for particle

deposition in the human upper airways for the first four generations. Model geometry was
to be built using Solidworks and the flow field and particle trajectories in the model
geometry calculated using CFX based on a finite volume method. The aim was to study the
factors affecting the deposition efficiency that included break down of the dimensionless
number, in view of the particle efficiency with changes in:
 particle size
 particle density
 fluid flow rate.
It was deemed that by performing such an analysis, it would then be possible to

determine the factors which had the maximum influence on deposition efficiency, based
on considerations of a realistic particle diameter and density.
59
Chapter. 3 In-Vitro Experimental Study Modelling Human Airways
60
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the experimental work which was performed on fluid flow through a
bifurcating airway model is presented. The human lung airway system is composed of
bifurcating networks and the experiments in this study investigated the fluid flow in
bifurcations.
The primary objective of this work was to form a basis on which to validate the results
obtained using computational fluid dynamics code provided by CFX ANSYS CFX v11 [71].
The model used was basic as the aim was mainly to build confidence in the numerical
code and validate some selected data.
The experiments employed Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) to measure velocity profiles
at various locations inside the parent tubes and daughter tubes of bifurcation. The results
obtained were used for the validation of the numerical data given later in this chapter.
The experiments conducted in this chapter were carried out under steady flow, and the
medium used for velocity measurements was water.
61
3.2 Experimental Apparatus
LDAs are non-contact optical instruments for the investigation of fluid flow structure in
gases and liquids. These instruments can also measure surface velocities of solids. LDAs
have some unique advantages in comparison with other fluid flow instrumentation such
as hot-wired probe.
(i) Non-contact optical measurement – This is the major advantage of LDA as LDAs
probe the flow with focused laser beams and can sense the velocity without any
disturbance to the flow in the measuring volume. The necessary conditions
(sometimes considered as drawbacks) are a transparent medium with a suitable
concentration of seeding particles (or tracer particles) and optical access to the
flow through transparent windows, or via a submerged optical probe. In some
Engineering application, it can become economically costly to generate seeding
particles for airflow measurements.
(ii) No calibration is required – LDAs have unique intrinsic response to fluid velocity
therefore, it is absolute linearity. LDA measurement is based on the stability and
linearity of optical electromagnetic waves and is only slightly affected by other
physical parameters such as temperature, density, pressure of the flow medium.
(iii) Well defined directional response – The velocity measurement by LDA is the exact
directional projection response of the flow. Meaning that measuring the velocity in
x-direction will not contain velocity component from y- or z- component.
(iv) High spatial and temporal resolution – High intensity laser beam allows LDA to able
to define a very tiny measuring volume. This provides high spatial resolution and
allows local measurement of Eulerian velocity. With the advance in fast signal
processing electronics nowadays and since the measuring volume is small; this
62
permits high bandwidth, time-resolved accurate measurements of fast fluctuating
velocities.
(v) Multi-component bi-directional measurements at the same time – with the

installation of frequency shifting apparatus to the laser system, the laser can be
split into multi component. Two or more velocity component can be measured at
the same time.
The properties of LDAs made them an attractive proposition for measurements in this
research. As is often the case, however, optimization of the performance of a system with
respect to certain parameters can influence other performance characteristics negatively.
Figure 3-1 shows the 2D Laser Doppler Anemometry facility made available for this
research. Swinburne University of Technology has utilised this Laser Doppler Anemometry
for many research projects (Morsi, et al. [72],Morsi, et al. [73]).
Figure 3-1 Laser Doppler Anemometry at Swinburne University of Technology
63
3.3 Principles of Laser Doppler Anemometers (LDAs)
The LDA measuring technique was first proposed by Yeh and Cummings [74]. The principle
of the LDA technique is based on the fact that the light scattered by particles in a flow is
Doppler shifted. The frequency of the Doppler-shift is directly proportional to the velocity
of the particles. A different combination of optical set up is designed to measure the
Doppler shift frequencies, and the most common optical system is the so-called dual beam
or fringe mode system. In a dual beam arrangement system, two Gaussian beams of equal
intensity are crossing each other in the flow field using a focusing lens to produce an
ellipsoid shaped measurement volume. Therefore, a fringe pattern is generated at this
point in the same plane as the beams. Figure 3-2 shows the schematic diagram of the dual
beam optical system with the fringe description. 
Figure 3-2 Dual beam optical system and fringe pattern
The fringe separation  f , is defined as,
64

f 

2 sin
2 3-1
where  is the laser wavelength and  is the laser beam intersection angle. A particle
passing through the dark and the light fringe pattern will scatter light whose intensity will
vary. Assuming that the Doppler shift frequency is f D, then the particle velocity component,
U, normal to the fringe in the same plane is given by,
f D
U   f fD 

2 sin
2 3-2
This model provides an accurate expression for the velocity of particles in the flow field,
and requires no calibration since the wavelength and intersection angle are constants
once the colour of the laser beam is chosen and the optical arrangement is fixed. The
component of velocity must always be measured normal to the fringes, regardless of the
direction of the flow.
65
3.4 Experimental Set Up
The experimental work presented here made use of the LDA shown in Figure 3-1. The
two-component LDA system is a transmitted based Fibre Flow system with high
transmission efficiencies from the laser source to the measuring volume. As show in
Figure 3-3, the system consists of a laser source, the Aerometrics Fibre Drive connected
with a fibre optic probe and signal processors together with a data acquisition system.
Figure 3-3 LDA system setup
The Argon-Ion laser was functioning in the fundamental optic mode of the cylindrical laser
cavity mode which provides a Gaussian distribution of its intensity at all cross sections
along the beam. The laser source of the LDA system was a Spectra-Physics Stabilite 2017
Argon-Ion laser with overall output power of 5W for all continuous lines of wavelength
from 351.nm to 528.7nm, particularly with approximately 1.5W power of the blue beam
at 488 nm wavelength and the green beam at 514.5 nm wavelength. These blue and green
66
beams were the two colour beams used for the optical arrangement of the two
component LDA system.
The fibre optic probe had a lens of 100mm focal length and the beam diameter of 3.5mm
which produced an ellipsoidal measurement volume. Figure 3-4 shows the measuring
volume is an ellipsoid due to the Gaussian intensity distribution in the beams. dx is the
height, dy is the width and dz is the length of the measuring volume and f is the
wavelength of the beam.
Figure 3-4 Measurement Volume
The probe volume dimensions recorded from signal analyser is shown in Table 3-1.
Table 3-1 Probe volume dimensions

dx (m) dy (m) dz (m)
U – Velocity 0.00181 0.00177 0.00898
Green beam
V – Velocity 0.00190 0.00187 0.00947
Blue beam
Acquisition of LDA data is achieved on the computer with high speed to digital converters.
The software called DATAVIEW was used to collect data from the signal analysers. In the
67
experiment, 5µm silver coated pearl particles were used as the seeding particles due to
the high reflection rate. These particles were found to track the flow accurately and
generate sufficient scattered light from the laser for the photo detector to detect (Owida
[75]).
A schematic diagram of the fluid flow equipment is shown in Figure 3-5.
Figure 3-5 Schematic diagram for the experimental setup
Actual physical setup of all the equipment is shown in Figure 3-6. The pump is located
under the water tank
68
Figure 3-6 Actual equipment setup at Swinburne Fluid Lab
Each component of the setup is described below:
 Water tank – 0.252 m3 in volume, the water tank provided a reservoir of water
with filler to provide water flow for the whole circuit without air bubbles. Very fine
particles were deployed into the water tank for the whole system. These seeding
particles were used for LDA measurements.
 Pump – A pump was used to provide work to drive the water from the tank
through the circuit. This pump was capable of producing 33 L/ min of flow.
 Ball valve – The ball valve was used for adjusting flow rates.
69
 Flow meter – The flow meter was used for measuring the flow rates along the main
tube and the bifurcation model.
 Pressure gauge – Pressure gauge is used to measure the water pressure entering
the bifurcation model.
 Bifurcation model – The bifurcation model was made out of glass, as shown in
Figure 3-7. The model was mounted onto a Perspex box such that the laser could
shine onto a flat surface before entering the model. The Perspex box is filled with
liquid (glycerine) that has a similar refractive index as glass. The reasons for having
the Perspex box are:
1. To reduce optical noise as laser light scatters when shine onto curved
surface on the glass tube.
2. To maintain the laser refractive indices such that the laser beam would not
bend (change direction) when the laser pass through curved surface.
Figure 3-7 Glass bifurcation model
70
The dimensions of the model are shown Figure 3-8.
Figure 3-8 Dimension of bifurcation model mimicking the human airways
Figure 3-9 shows an example of how the LDA measures the velocity of the water flow
inside the bifurcation glass model.
Figure 3-9 LDA measurements
Three different steady flow rates were measured in the experiment. These represented
Reynolds numbers (Re) of
71
 518
 1036
 2089
at the inlet to the bifurcation model. Reynolds number is a dimensionless number that is
the ratio of the inertial forces to viscous forces. Reynolds numbers are commonly used to
determine the characteristic of the flow regimes.
3-3
where
  is the density (property of the flowing fluid)
 U is the mean velocity of the flow (can be computed from flow meter
measurement)
 D is the hydraulic diameter (diameter of the glass tube)
 µ is the dynamic viscosity (property of the flowing fluid)
It is well known that there are three types of fluid flow in pipes, they are laminar,
transitional and turbulent. The flow is
 Laminar when Re < 2300
 Transitional when 2300 < Re < 4000
 Turbulent when Re > 4000
The LDA equipment is only capable of capturing fluid flow when it is under laminar
condition. Therefore the selection of the Reynolds number for conducting the experiment
72
is limited, so the Reynolds number chosen are 518, 1036 and 2089. The results were
measured at four different locations inside the bifurcation mode. As per Figure 3-12,
Station 1 was at the inlet; Station 2 was at the point before the flow divider; Station 3 was
at the point after the flow divider, and Station 4 was at the outlet.
At each station, 20 equally spaced points were selected to conduct LDA measurements.
The LDA probe was placed on a high precision X-Y axis adjustable table. In order to
determine the location of the wall, the LDA probe was moved at the step of 0.05mm until
a non-zero velocity were recorded. Then the LDA probe was moved in an increment of
0.013m allowing 19 measurements for Station 1 & 2 and 17 measurements for Station 3 &
4. At each point location for measurements, the average velocity was calculated based on
measurement from 10,000 sample particles.
Section 3.5 describes how the experimental setup was modelled numerically, and the
results obtained will subsequently be presented together.
73
3.5 Initial Numerical Experimentation
3.5.1 Overview
The experimental set up described in 3.4 was simulated numerically using computational
fluid dynamics to build some degree of confidence in the numerical code. First, the
bifurcation model was created using CFX-Build. CFX-Build was a program that was part of
CFX version 5.6. CFX-Build was a geometry creation software packaged that enabled users
to create complex two or three dimensional geometry from points and lines. Meshing was
performed after geometry creation. Figure 3-10 shows the mesh created by CFX-Build
using tetrahedral elements.
Figure 3-10 Mesh of the bifurcation geometry
The specification of the flow physics, boundary conditions, initial values and solver
parameters was all performed in CFX-Pre. CFX-Pre could import mesh files produced by
74
CFX-Build, or from a range of other mesh generation software packages. From a problem
specification generated in CFX-Pre, the CFX-5 Solver solved for all the solution variables for
the simulation. When the residual of the variable reached a limiting value, a solution was
obtained. Figure 3-11 shows the residual of variables
 P-Mass
 U-Mom
 V-Mom
 W-Mom
reaching below 0.0001, thus providing the required solution for each variable.
Figure 3-11 Solution converges for all the velocity investigated variables
75
An important feature of CFX-5 is its use of a coupled solver, in which all the hydrodynamic
equations are solved as a single system. The coupled solver is faster than the traditional
segregated solver, and thus less iteration is required to obtain a converged flow solution.
CFX-Post is a post-processing graphics tool which is employed to analyse and present the
results from CFX-5 simulations.
3.5.2 Simulation Physics Specification
The fluid considered here was incompressible air at 25C with viscosity,  = 1.831E-05
(kg/m-s) and density,  = 1.185 (kg/m3). The solutions were obtained for a large range of
Reynolds Numbers (Re = 500 to 2000) at steady inspiration rate. The governing equations
were:
The continuity equation:
  U   0 3-4
The momentum equation:
U  U   1 p    U  U T 

 3-5
76
Where
  is the density
 p is the static pressure
 U is the vector of velocity U (x, y, z).
  is the kinematic viscosity
The inlet condition for the bifurcation was the measured mass flow rate by the flow meter
in the experimental setup. The outlet condition was by setting relative static pressure to
zero. The wall was set to no slip boundary.
Figure 3-12 Boundary conditions for the bifurcation model
77
3.6 Results and Observations
3.6.1 Overview
This section presents three sets of results for Reynolds Numbers at
 518
 1036
 2089
respectively. In each set of results, there were 4 locations of velocity measurements as

shown in Figure 3-12. The location A-A’ denotes Station 1, the location B-B’ denotes
Station 2, the location C-C’ denotes Station 3 and the location D-D’ denotes Station 4.
3.6.2 Case 1: Reynolds Number at 518
The velocities Vmean at four locations are plotted in Figure 3-13 for a Reynolds Number of
518. On the graph, the triangle symbols represent simulations results and the hollow
square symbols represent the experimental results. The agreement is quite good at
Station 1. At Station 1, the maximum velocity reaches 0.024 m/s. At Station 2, the
simulation still presents a very smooth parabolic profile while the actual experimental
results velocities showed decreased velocity on the side walls, and the peak velocity was
lower than simulation result. The maximum experimental velocity recorded was 0.0158
m/s at x=0.0106 m from the left wall of the tube. While the maximum simulation velocity
recorded was 0.0174m/s.
78
0.024
0.016
0.022
0.02 0.014
0.018 0.012
0.016
Velocity (m s 1)
Velocity (m s 1)
0.01
-
-
0.014
0.012 0.008
0.01 0.006
0.008
0.004
0.006
0.002
0.004
0.002 0
0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
X (m) X (m)
Station 1 Station 2
0.015 0.015
Velocity (m s^-1)
Velocity (m s^-1)
0.01 0.01
0.005 0.005
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0 0.01 0.02
X (m) X (m)
Station 3 Station 4
Figure 3-13 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 518
The differences between the experimental and simulation results could be attributed to
the manufacturing defects of the glass model. The round tubes of glass were melted and
joined together by a professional glass blower and, at the inner side of the joint, there
79
existed some roughness on the surface, as shown in Figure 3-14, causing the velocity
profile differences for other stations. There were also other inaccuracies in experimental
data which were due to the imperfections of the experimental model. Apart from the wall
having rough surfaces, within the glass model, it was also unavoidable that the glass
model had air bubbles created during the blowing process at low velocity. When the laser
light passed through the air bubbles inside the glass, the laser light was bent and caused
measurement errors. This error mainly affected Station 2 and Station 3.
Figure 3-14 Differences between Simulation model and Experimental model
At Station 3, the simulation showed a very smooth skewed parabolic shape and was
somewhat different from the experimental results. This was due to the effect of the
differences in geometry of the two models. It is important to note that major differences
are more noticeable near the wall. At Station 3, maximum experiment velocity was
located at x=0.01995 m with 0.016299 m/s while maximum simulation velocity was
located at x=0.0019 m with 0.01613 m/s which they both were located closely with similar
value. At station 4, the error had slightly reduced as the flow developed again into a
parabolic profile. The experiment measured values were all lower than simulation, one of
the assumptions that were made at the construction of the experimental rig was that the
80
flow rate should be equal for the both outlet. If the flow resistance were different
downstream after the flow divider, the flow would not be equal in each branch of outlet
especially when the mass flow rate is low. Another point to note with the results was the
velocity measured was by the magnitude of 0.016 m/s equivalent to 1.6 cm/s, which was a
very small velocity and the errors would increase due to the capability of the LDA
equipment.
81
The velocities Vmean for Reynolds Number at 1036 are plotted in Figure 3-15. The
experimental results at Station 1 (inlet) matched very closely with the simulation results.
The simulation velocity profiles were quite similar for Station 1 and Station 2. The
experimental results at Station 2 had a parabolic trend except at x=0.02. This was because
of errors in the reading of experimental measurements. At Station 3, the results looked
promising as the experimental results matched with the simulation results. The
differences between the experimental results and simulation results were greatest near
the wall. At Station 4, the simulation results remained as a smooth curve when the flow
started to redevelop – however, the two peaks of the skewed velocity profile from the
experimental results were higher than the simulation result. This could be contributed by
the wall roughness as explained in Section 3.6.2.
82
0.04 0.04
0.035 0.035
0.03 0.03
Velocity (m s 1)
Velocity (m s 1)
-
-
0.025 0.025
0.02 0.02
0.015 0.015
0.01 0.01
0.005 0.005
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
X (m) X (m)
Station 1 Station 2
0.035
0.035
0.03
0.03
0.025 0.025
Velocity (m s 1)
Velocity (m s 1)
-
0.02 0.02
0.015 0.015
0.01 0.01
0.005 0.005
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0 0.01 0.02
X (m) X (m)
Station 3 Station 4
83
The velocities Vmean for Reynolds Number at 2089 are plotted in Figure 3-16. The results in
this case are similar to Case 2. At Station 1, the parabolic shape was matched in both
experimental and simulation results. However, in this case, the peak of the profile at
Station 1 was flatter. This was because when the Reynolds Number was 2089, it reached
the transition region from laminar flow to turbulent flow and the profile demonstrated a
fairly turbulent profile. At Station 2, the experimental results were lower compared to the
simulation. This may have been because the cross section area at Station 2 in the
experimental model was larger than the simulation model and the error value in the
experimental results may also be due to the wall roughness. At Station 3, the results
matched reasonably well. The experimental results in this station showed a slight double
peak, which was shown again in the simulation results at Station 4. At Station 4, the
simulation results were quite similar to experimental results.
84
0.07 0.07
0.065 0.065
0.06 0.06
0.055 0.055
0.05 0.05
Velocity (m s 1)
Velocity (m s 1)
0.045 0.045
-
-
0.04 0.04
0.035 0.035
0.03 0.03
0.025 0.025
0.02 0.02
0.015 0.015
0.01 0.01
0.005 0.005
0 0
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0 0.01 0.02 0.03
X (m) X (m)
Station 1 Station 2
0.07 0.065
0.065 0.06
0.06
0.055
0.055
0.05
0.05
0.045 0.045
Velocity (m s 1)
Velocity (m s 1)
-
0.04 0.04
0.035 0.035
0.03 0.03
0.025 0.025
0.02
0.02
0.015
0.015
0.01
0.01
0.005
0 0.005
0
0 0.01 0.02 0 0.01 0.02
X (m) X (m)
Station 3 Station 4
85
3.7 Discussion
All the results show a parabolic profile at the inlet (as shown in Figure 3-13, Figure 3-15
and Figure 3-16). As the flow reached Station 2 which was close to the flow divider of the
bifurcation, the flow started to slow down, due to the larger cross sectional area. After
the flow divider, the flow became skewed as the velocity at the inner wall was larger than
the velocity at the outside wall. This was logical because, as the parabolic profile split into
two streams, the high velocity was divided into two daughter tubes downstream. The
high velocity was at the inside wall, and as the fluid flowed further downstream, the
velocity started to redevelop a laminar tube flow profile. Therefore, peak velocity was
only on one side and the peaks started to move from wall to middle downstream as
shown in the plots of Station 3 to Station 4. Reynolds number is a function of density,
velocity, diameter of the pipe divided by the viscosity of the fluid. As the Reynolds number
increases, as the other parameters are the same, this means only the velocity is faster. As
the velocity increases, after the flow divider, the velocity profile recovers faster and
develops back to the parabolic profile. At Station 4, in all cases, the flow was starting to
redevelop to become laminar. When the flow was skewed, the pressure along the profile
was uneven – on one side with high velocity, the pressure was low and on the other side
with low velocity, the pressure was high – as the flow started to redevelop, a skewed M
shape was produced.
The case for Re=2089 was slightly different, for the skewed M shape profiles earlier in
Station 3.
Overall, despite some anomalies, the simulation results showed similar trends to the
experimental results. The computational fluid dynamics code could thus be used to model
a practical situation with some accuracy.
86
Chapter. 4 Numerical Analysis In A Four Generation Airway Under
Steady Flow
87
4.1 Introduction
The objective of this chapter is to document the more detailed numerical simulation work
that was undertaken by extending the previously developed model from one to four
generations while the fluid flow conditions remained at steady flow.
The literature review highlighted several pieces of research into air flow in bifurcation
models, with relatively in simpler geometries than encountered here. In fact, both
numerical (Wilquem and Degrez [16], Zhao et al. [21], Liu et al. [18]) and experimental
(Schroter & Sudlow 1969, Chang & Masry 1982, Isabey and Chang, Zhao & Lieber 1994)
models had been reported in two decades prior to the undertaking of this research. The
studies, noted above, generally concluded that there existed a skewed velocity profile at
the outlet of the bifurcation and the subsequent development of the secondary flow along
the downstream towards the daughter branches.
Wilquem & Degrez (1997) used two dimensional steady air flow using a three generation
airway. They determined that velocity profiles downstream of the first junction were
highly skewed, thus leading to an important imbalance in the flow distribution
downstream of the second junction. Zhao et al. (1997) reported his two generation
airways model for laminar flow and validated the results with his experimental findings. It
was clear from the knowledge gained from the earlier literature that there were
significant differences between symmetric and asymmetric geometries. Moreover, that a
two dimensional representation of human airways failed to represent actual phenomena
due to the dominance of radial components in the daughter branches.
The previous chapter documented a numerical simulation that was carried out to validate
the accuracy of the numeric method in comparison with experimental data. In this chapter,
the focus is on documenting the ensuing numerical simulation. Herein, the model is
extended from one to four generations while the fluid flow condition stays at steady flow.
88
4.2 Methodology
4.2.1 Overview
In this section, the geometry of the models considered is provided along with the
equations governing the simulation. Details on the numerical method to solve the
equations are also specified. The laboratory experiment to collect the field data is also
explained in detail.
4.2.2 Geometry of the model
In the analysis here, both in-plane and off-plane geometries were considered for four
generation airways – see Figure 4-1. The in-plane geometry was one where all bifurcations
were in one single plane, similar to that of Liu, et al. [55]. In the off-plane case, the
bifurcated branches were perpendicular to each other and symmetric about their parent
branch, typically a Weibel [15] geometric model (Figure 4-1c). The computational domain
(Figure 4-2) involved a mother branch and a set of symmetrically configured lateral and
medial branches. Downstream of the mother branch, there existed two bifurcation points
symmetric to the mother branch centreline. The principal dimensions and the angles for
the model considered here are given in Table 4-1.
89
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 4-1 (a) In-plane (b) off-plane geometries and (c) shows two perpendicular planes in off-plane
bifurcation model
90
Ux = 0; Uy  Re; Uz = 0;
L0
D0
R0
D1
x
P1
R1
L1
D2 D4
P2
D3
P11
P3
P12 P7 P5 P4
P8
P13 R2 P6 L2
P14 R3
P9 P10 L3
P15 P18
P16 P17
p =0
Figure 4-2 Computational domain for in-plane model with dimensions and boundary conditions.
91
Table 4-1 Dimension of the airways geometry of the model
Name of airway Gen. Number Diameter Length Curvature
No.
per Gen [mm] [mm] [mm]
Trachea 0 1 D0 18 L0 120 R0 1.9D0
Main bronchus 1 2 D1 12.2 L1 47.6 R1 1.2D1
Lobar bronchus 2 4 D2 8.3 L2 19 R2 0.9D2
Lobar bronchus 3 8 D3 5.6 L3 7.6 R3 1.2D3
Segmental 4 16 D4 4.5 L4 12.7 R4 -
bronchus
The geometries were constructed with the following assumptions:
 The wall is smooth and the cartilage ring does not pose significant disturbances.
 The curvature for the bifurcation is calculated such that smooth transition from
one generation to the next can be achieved.
 The bifurcation is symmetrical with bifurcating angle 70.
4.2.3 The equations
The fluid considered here was incompressible air at 25C with viscosity  = 1.81e-5 (kg/m s)
and density  = 1.29 (kg/m3). The solutions were obtained for a large range of Reynolds
Numbers (Re = 500 to 2000) at steady inspiration rate. The conservation law of mass and
momentum are given below.
Continuity Equation:
  U  0 4-1
92
Momentum Equation:
U  U   1 p     U  U T 

 4-2
Where
4.2.4 Fluid Domain Conditions
A full cycle of breathing is a transient process such that the flow varies with time, but the
foci are given to the overall view of the flow characteristics such as flow field and
secondary flow inside a four generation airways model. The transient simulation was not
deemed to be essential as the effect of transition of flow characteristics in transient
simulation were not significant. Hence, steady state flow was assumed in the simulation.
Forced ventilation was a condition where air was pushed into the airways such that
velocity was assigned at the inlet of the simulation. In the available literature, forced
ventilation was assumed in the simulated models. The control volume of the fluid began
from the start of trachea (Gen 0) and finished at the segmental bronchus (Gen 4, Figure
93
4-2). Assuming the fluid was incompressible and the air went into the trachea it would all
pass through to segmental bronchus. Therefore mass flow rate at the inlet equals that at
the outlet. Table 4-2 lists the mass flow rate at different Reynolds Numbers.
Table 4-2 Breathing flow rate and mass flow rate at trachea for each different Reynolds Number
Reynolds Number (Re) Breathing flow rate at Mass flow rate at trachea
trachea [L/min] [kg/min]
500 6.55 0.43
750 9.83 0.64
1000 13.11 0.86
1250 16.38 1.07
1500 19.66 1.29
1750 22.94 1.50
2000 26.21 1.72
At the trachea inlet, the mass flow rate was assigned to the cross section area as:

m inlet  UA  cons tan t 4-3
At the segmental bronchus outlet, the static relative pressure was assigned to zero. This
implied that all outlets did not provide resistance. This boundary condition was also
applied in Wilquem and Degrez [51]:
prelative  0
4-4
A no-slip boundary condition was specified in all rigid smooth walls as shown in Figure 4-2.
94
4.3 Numerical Method
In light of the symmetry of the problem, only one quarter of the geometry needed to be
considered for the numerical analysis. This reduced the computation time by a factor of
four, while the results could be determined for the other mirror images regardless.
The density of the mesh varied across the cross-section - more nodes were placed near
the flow divider for better resolution in the results because the high velocity flow collided
with the wall near the flow divider. Figure 4-3 and Figure 4-4 demonstrate that the mesh
density increases near the flow divider. The figures also show that as the diameter
decreases through the generation, the size of the element also decreases to maintain a
good resolution.
Figure 4-3 Mesh of the Gen 3 & Gen 4 showing the density increase near flow divider (in plane model)
Generated by author using CFX-5.7
95
Figure 4-4 Mesh of the Gen 3 & Gen 4 showing the density increase near flow divider (off plane model)
Generated by author using CFX-5.7
In near-wall regions, boundary layer effects gave rise to velocity gradients which were
maximum normal to the face. Hence, inflation layers were applied on all walls to make the
model more computationally efficient. A grid independence test was carried out for
maximum steady flow condition (Re=2000) and the same grid was used for all simulations.
96
4.4 Results and Discussion
4.4.1 Overview
In this section, first step is to discuss the validation of the model based on the numerical
simulation and experimental data. Following validation of the model, velocity patterns for
Reynolds Numbers 500-2000 and for different generations are provided. The behaviour of
secondary flow is also considered.
4.4.2 Numerical Code Validation with Experimental Results
As it is typical with other numerical simulations, validation of proposed model is the first
step towards simulating a computationally difficult problem. In order to validate the code,
initially a simpler model of branching tube is considered for both numerical and
experimental analysis. Figure 4-5 shows the schematic view of the model and shows the
comparison of LDA (Laser Doppler Anemometry) data with our numerical data at Re =
1036. The validation process was described in Lai, et al. [76].
The results clearly showed the boundary layer growth as the flow passed the divider (from
parent tube to daughter tubes) indicating no separation zone at a given bifurcation angle
and Reynolds number. Zhao and Lieber [8] had also reported similar experimental results
on symmetric bifurcated tubes having 70o bifurcation angle.
97
Figure 4-5 Comparison between experimental results with numerical results at Re = 1036
98
4.4.3 Model Validation
The objective of this research was to model and simulate air flow through multiple
generations of the human airways, and hence further validation against a multiple
generation model was required. The exact same model as defined in Liu, et al. [55] was
reproduced with the same dimensions. The dimensions of this model are listed in Table
4-3 Geometric parameters for the fifth and sixth bifurcation in the human airways model
used in Liu, et al. [55]’s simulation. The diameter of the mother branch was 35.1mm and
the total cross-sectional area of the two daughter branches was the same as that of the
mother branch. The junction radius of curvature was seven times the diameters of the
daughter branches, and the bifurcation angle was 70.
Agreement between the calculations here and numerical results from Liu, et al. [55] was
quite good, including the skewed axial velocity profile towards the inner wall in the
bifurcation plane as shown in Figure 4-6. Although the model here was reproduced
according to the dimensions given in Liu, et al. [55], it needs to be noted that these were
two dimensional only, in the mid plane of the model. The small discrepancies in the results
may then be attributed to the effect of the three dimensional parameters, such as the wall
curvatures, on how the flow divider was modelled here.
The results also compared well against calculations in a 180 pipe bend by So, et al. [77]
and experimental measurements by Zhao and Lieber [78].
Table 4-3 Geometric parameters for the fifth and sixth bifurcation in the human airways model used in Liu,
et al. [55]’s simulation
I D (mm) L (mm) R (mm) 2 ()  ()
5 3.5 10.7 7D6 70  L  180 
   6  
 3R   
6 2.8 9.0 7D7 70  L7  180 
   
 3R   
7 2.3 7.6
99
Liu's Result
1.4 CFX Result
1.2
Velocity (Dimensionless)
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
X
(a)
Liu's Result
1.4 CFX Result
1.2
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
X
(b)
Liu's Result
1.4 CFX Result
1.2
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-1 -0.5 0 0.5 1
X
(c)
Figure 4-6 Comparison between numerical results with Liu, et al. [55] numerical results at the end of the
second-generation tube in a three-generation airway with (a) Re = 200, (b) Re=800 and (c) Re=1400.
100
4.4.4 Velocity Flow Field for in-plane and off-plane model
A four generation model of the airway system was developed and computations were
carried out for Reynolds Numbers in the range from 500 – 2000, by using the same
numerical code that was validated in Sections 3.1 and 3.2. These flow rates represented
the situation where a human breathes quietly at different stages from normal breathing to
medium exercise. Although the actual flow within such a bronchial network was time
dependent, a steady inspiratory flow analysis was carried out with the aim of
understanding the flow characteristics, particularly the secondary flow growth at the
fourth-generation stage both in-plane and off-plane configurations.
As the flow passed the first generation of bifurcation, along the downstream, it showed
the existence of skewed velocity patterns, creating an asymmetric flow that featured in all
the previous numerical models developed previously - Wilquem and Degrez [51], Calay, et
al. [54], Liu, et al. [55], Zhao, et al. [79]. The axial velocity profile underwent a dramatic
change in terms of the development of the secondary flows as it passed from the main
trachea to successive branches.
Figure 4-7 shows the velocity profile for different Reynolds Numbers for the first
generation (G0). It is evident from the figure that, with an increase in Reynolds Number,
the skewed velocity profiles became more significant in the vicinity of the inner wall of the
bifurcation. The similar skewed profile near the inner wall was also observed in our
experimental model of a single bifurcation tube. This was mainly attributed to the non-
linear contribution from the inertial terms that became significant at higher Reynolds
Numbers and a higher radius of curvature. The skewed nature of the flow became more
apparent as flow passed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation of the bronchial airways.
It is important to note that if the resultant area (cross-sectional area of the all out going
branches) of the branching tubes is equal (or less than) the main trachea, the flow will
exhibit severe skewed velocity profile (in first few generations of airways). Further
101
downstream, the total cross-sectional area of the branching tube increases due to the
large number of generations, which decreases the mass flow rate per branch and, in turn,
reduces the dominance of the skewed profile. However, in the first few generations of the
bronchial tree, each daughter tube of the same branch will have different air flow rates
due to skewed upstream velocity patterns.
The velocity patterns plotted for all 3rd and 4th generations of airways for both in-plane
and off-plane geometry are shown in Figure 4-8 and Figure 4-9. The air stream splits at
each bifurcation and develops a new boundary layer along the inner wall of the successive
daughter tube. The skewed profile, with a maximum axial velocity near the inner wall,
increases along the downstream. However, flow reversal was not observed even with a
higher Reynolds Number (Re = 2000) in the entire branching model. This may be due to
the inertial forces that are insufficient to provide an adverse pressure gradient (large
enough) to cause the shear gradient to change direction. This contributes to the
persistence of a strong boundary layer growth near the inner wall.
Figure 4-8 shows the effect of increasing Reynolds Numbers on flow patterns. Figure 4-9
illustrates the velocity vector for off-plane configuration. In off-plane configuration the
flow will be symmetrical at the first generation branching tube because of its position.
However, the flow loses its symmetry in the second generation. In comparison with the in-
plane configuration, the flow loses its symmetry after the first generation. This is because
of the differences between the configurations as shown in Figure 4-8 and Figure 4-9.
102
(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 4-7 Velocity Plot in the main Trachea (Generation 0).
103
Re = 500
Re = 1000
Re = 2000
Figure 4-8 Velocity patterns for the in-plane configuration
104
Re = 500
Re = 1000
Re = 2000
Figure 4-9 Velocity patterns in the off-plane configuration (a) Plane A and (b) Plane B
105
4.4.5 The Secondary flow
According to Zhang, et al. [80], Zhang, et al. [81], flow near the divider depended on a
number of geometric parameters, including:
 The diameter of daughter branches relative to the corresponding parent branch.
 The angle of bifurcation.
 The angle of curvature of the outside wall.
When the flow splits in the divider, the fluid in the middle of the airway moves along the
diameter, impinges the inner wall and turns outward (towards the centreline) further
downstream. This behaviour of the flow is potentially the major source that could
generate the secondary flow patterns in the angular direction (i.e., near the vicinity of the
inner wall).
Velocity vectors in the cross-sectional plane were plotted for both in-plane and off-plane
configurations and are shown in Figure 4-10, Figure 4-11 and Figure 4-12. Two distinct and
symmetric secondary vortices appeared at the upper and lower side of the tube.
P1 and P2 (Figure 4-10) show the velocity vector plots as the flow immediately passed the
first generation of branching and approached the 2nd generation branching. The secondary
flow in Figure 4-10 clearly indicated the flow towards the inner wall in P1. In P3 and P4 (in
the second generation), the flow was not symmetrical because of the velocity profile
before the second generation tube was skewed. Thus, in P4, it was expected to have more
mass flow relative to P3. The most interesting situation arose when the secondary flow in
these two cross-sections was compared.
In P3 the flow was towards the inner wall (i.e., in the same direction as in P2 and P1).
Sections, P7, P9, P11, P13, P15 and P17, as shown in Figure 4-11 and Figure 4-12, had
similar flow patterns. However, in P4, when the flow moved towards the inner wall
106
opposing the secondary flow that existed in the branch previously it resulted in a
completely different flow pattern to that of P3. Hence, a similar flow pattern as P4 will be
expected in P8, P10, P12, P14, P16 and P18, as shown in Figure 4-11 and Figure 4-12. In
the off plane configuration the flow exhibited completely different patterns due to the
combined effects of secondary flow dominance (towards the inner wall and 90 degree
offset from the centreline). The diametral symmetry was affected significantly.
In summary, the secondary flow propagated throughout the whole model after the first
bifurcation. The strength of secondary flow increased with Reynolds Number. Repeated
trends could be found at different locations in the whole model. The secondary flow
weakened as the flow started to redevelop downstream of the flow divider.
107
P1 P2
P3 P4
Figure 4-10 Velocity Vector Plots for Generation 2 cross section planes at Re=500 (in-plane model).
108
P7 P8
P9 P10
109
P11 P12
P13 P14
P15 P16
P17 P18
110
4.4.6 Flow Distribution
After the first flow divider, the velocity profiles of the flow became skewed with a higher
velocity along the inside wall and low along the outside wall. This skewed velocity profile
was further divided into two streams of flow. This led to an unbalance in the flow
distribution throughout the model and hence there was more flow in the medial branch
(P4 in Figure 4-8) than lateral branch (P3 in Figure 4-8).
Studies were carried out to correlate mass flow rate ratio between the medial and lateral
branch and the Reynolds Number of the parent branch. Wilquem and Degrez [51]
presented the relationship as:
_
Qmedial
 6.32  10 6 Re   7.90  10 4 Re   1.02
2
m
Qlateral 4-5
Where Qmedial and Qlateral were the mass flow rates, respectively passing through the
medial and lateral branches.
Liu, et al. [55] had also suggested the same correlation. For their in-plane bifurcation
_
model, the m Re relation was given by:
_
m  0.36 Re 0.227 4-6
_
In the simulation here, it was found that m did not vary with Re as greatly as it did in the
work of Wilquem and Degrez [51] and Liu, et al. [55].
_
The model in this research produced the m Re relation as:
111
_
m  0.00002 Re 1.09 4-7
The main difference between the previous correlations and that presented here is that the
model here used dimensions from Generation 0 to 2, rather than Generation 5 to 7, which
implied that there could be limited application of the m  Re relation – specifically
because it did not take into account the length of the middle generation. In this research,
the length of the first generation was not taken into account and the skewed velocity
profiles may have redeveloped into a more parabolic flow profile. In the Liu, et al. [55]
model, Generation 6 was shorter than in the model here, and the skewed profile did not
have the length to develop before the next flow divider, implying that more mass would
flow into the medial branch than the lateral branch.
The mass flow rates at Generation 4 across P11 to P18, for the in-plane model, are shown
in Figure 4-13. The results indicate that the mass flow rate is higher at P12, P13, P16 and
P17 than at P11, P14, P15 and P18, which may be attributed to the skewed velocity profile
developed as shown in Figure 4-8.
In order to show the variation in the flow distributions with Reynolds Numbers, the
percentage of the mass flow rates for each outlet and for different Reynolds Numbers was
calculated. When the Re was low, the flow distribution was more even compared to the
higher Reynolds Numbers, as shown in Figure 4-14. Moreover, there was more flow to the
outer branches, P11 and P18, when the Re was low. This meant that during breathing,
depending on the branch orientation, there could be a change in local velocity as the flow
rate increased and the mass flow to each branch changed.
112
2E-05 Re
200
500
750
1000
1250
Air mass flow rate [kg/s]
1500
1.5E-05 1750
2000
1E-05
5E-06
0
P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18
Location
Figure 4-13. Mass flow rates comparison between all the outlets P11 – P18 for different Reynolds Number.
113
17 Re
200
500
750
16 1000
1250
Air mass flow rate percentage [%]
1500
1750
15 2000
14
13
12
11
10
8
P11 P12 P13 P14 P15 P16 P17 P18
Location
Figure 4-14 Mass flow rate percentages for Reynolds Number at each outlet.
114
4.4.7 Pressure drop behaviour
Pressure drop in the bifurcating airways plays an important role in the respiratory process.
The respiratory process can only take place continually and normally when the alternative
contraction and expansion of the respiratory muscles overcomes the pressure drop due to
viscous loss. The pressure drop coefficient c p is defined as
Ptotal P P
cp   0,total 4,total 4-8
P0,dynamic P0,dynamic
Where
 P0,total is the mass-weighed integral of the total pressure over the inlet section of
generation 0.
 P4,total is the mass-weighed integral of the total pressure over the eight outlet
section of generation 4
 P0,dynamic is the mass-weighed integral of the dynamic pressure over the inlet
section of generation 0.
The values for the total and dynamic pressure can be obtained easily by Post processing
software. From the analysis in this Doctoral research, the c p versus Re are plotted in
Figure 4-15. The relation can be fitted by
cp = 123.32Re-0.58 4-9
This relationship was valid for Re between 200 to 2000. This relationship was very similar
to other simulations conducted by other researchers. For example, Liu, et al. [55]
calculated the exponent to be -0.497, and Wilquem and Degrez [51] in their two
dimensional simulation had the resulting exponent to be -0.61. The simulation results
115
here also showed similarity with the experimental results conducted by Snyder and Olson
[82] and Pedley [83] who had produced the c p vs Re relation with exponent to be -0.5.
5.5
4.5
3.5
Cp
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
Re
Figure 4-15 Variations of the pressure drop coefficient with Re.
116
4.5 Conclusion
In this chapter, computational fluid dynamics was used to determine the flow field
patterns in a four-generation bifurcation airway model. The velocity profiles for various
flow rates were presented and discussed. Selected results were compared with
experimental and published data and good agreement was achieved.
From the flow distribution analysis, the flow partition in the third generation in-plane
model was found to be unbalanced. Moreover, a linear rather than exponential
correlation was found between the mass flow ratios of the medial and lateral branches
and Reynolds Numbers. This was attributed to the fact that the length of the generation
investigated in this study was longer than the ones considered in previously published
studies.
From the pressure drop analysis, the pressure coefficient c p was found to vary with Re
according to cp = 123.32Re-0.58. The value of the exponent was found to be in general

agreement with experimental data and results of other published numerical simulations (-
0.497 to -0.61). Currently research is continuing to determine the effect of transient flow
and particle deposition in the same model presented here.
The extension to the computation work documented in this chapter was the study of
particle deposition in the four generation model. This will be discussed in the next
chapter.
117
Chapter. 5 Numerical Analysis on Particle Deposition in
Symmetrical Human Upper Airways Under Steady Conditions
118
5.1 Particle Deposition Modelling using CFD
It has already been noted herein that, at the time this research was undertaken, numerical
methods had been commonly applied to model particle deposition in the human airways.
The flow field and particle trajectory and deposition had been calculated by means of
solving corresponding equations.
Early studies considered the flow field as steady flow (Diu and Yu [63], Gradon and Orlicki
[64], Lee and Goo [65], Asgharian and Anjilvel [18], Zhang, et al. [66], Comer, et al. [67]).
Particle deposition was also studied extensively in these examples. The results showed
good agreement with experimental work. In subsequent studies, the steady flow model
was extended to an oscillatory flow (Zhang, et al. [84]). This highlighted that, relative to
the steady flow, the transient flow model revealed an increased particle deposition
efficiency – based upon comparisons using the same mean Reynolds Numbers. However,
most of these studies focused on geometry in Generation 3 onwards in the human airways,
although the non-dimensional parameters of the Stokes and Reynolds Numbers were
applied. However, there were parameters that could have an impact on particle efficiency
that were not considered within these numbers. Stokes Number is a dimensionless
number corresponding to the behaviour of the particles interacting with a fluid.
 p d p2U 
Stk  5-1
18D
Where
  p is the density of a spherical particle
 d p is the particle diameter
 U is the mean velocity of the fluid
119
  is the dynamic viscosity
 D is the diameter of the tube (airway)
A human lung is composed of bifurcating networks. The first generation of the bifurcating
network is the trachea – this is referred to as Generation 0 and it splits into two child
branches called the Main bronchus, which are Generation 1 of the airways. The
interesting point to note about human airways is that the flow velocity increases from
Generation 0 to Generation 3, then monotonically decrease down the generations. The
Reynolds Number, however, only decreases monotonically down the generations. Further,
if the Stokes Number is calculated with the same density and size along the airways
(assuming a particle to be travelling at the speed of the flow), the maximum Stokes
Number is at Generation 5. The point of emphasis here is that it is difficult to relate
particle efficiency with just Reynolds Number and Stokes Number, as the airway geometry
is very complex.
In fact, a more general particle deposition empirical formula is required for upper airways.
Therefore, in this chapter, a detailed computer simulation is presented for particle
deposition in the human upper airways for the first four generations.
Model geometry for the work documented in this chapter was built using Solidworks and
the flow field and particle trajectories in the model geometry were calculated using CFX,
based on a finite volume method. The objective was to study the factors affecting the
deposition efficiency that included the breakdown of the dimensionless number, in view
of the particle efficiency, with the changes in particle size, particle density, and fluid flow
rate. By doing this, it was possible to identify the factors which had the maximum
influence on deposition efficiency, based on realistic particle diameters and densities
under consideration.
120
5.2 Model Validation
This section documents the efforts made to verify the numerical model by first building a
model that had similar geometry to the one presented by Comer, et al. [67] and then
comparing the results with other available experimental data as well as numerical results.
Chan and Lippmann [85] produced an empirical formula for particle deposition in hollow
cast studies as:
  0.803Stk  0.0023 5-2
The above formula is developed based on deposition in the first six generations of the
airways.
Kim and Iglesias [40] performed extensive experimental work on deposition in a single
generation bifurcation by varying different bifurcating angels, ranging from 15 degrees to
90 degrees. They arrived at two empirical formulae:
(i) For bifurcation half angle equal to 15, 30 and 45 degree,
  0.09 log e 2 Stk  0.694 log e Stk  1.342 5-3
(ii) For bifurcation half angle equal to 60 and 90 degree.
  0.041log e 2 Stk  0.495 log e Stk  1.263 5-4
where Stk is Stokes Number defined as
121
 p d p2U 
Stk  5-5
18D
and  is the particle deposition efficiency. 
Zhang, et al. [66] arrived at empirical formulae based on the Stokes Number and Reynolds
Number:
a) For Parabolic flow
  0.000654 exp 55.7Stk 0.954 Re 3 sin  5-6
for Stk < 0.04
  0.19  0.193 exp  9.5Stk 1.565

Re 3
sin  5-7
for Stk ≥ 0.04
b) Uniform flow
  0.000425 exp 22.7Stk 0.832 Re 3 sin  5-8
for Stk < 0.07
  0.19  0.194 exp  3.28Stk 1.585

Re 3
sin  5-9
122
for Stk ≥ 0.07
The comparison between the model in this Doctoral research, and various experimental
and numerical models, as shown in Figure 5-1, predicts the particle efficiency of the model
here lower than others when the Stokes Number is below 0.09, but the difference is
relatively small. In fact, the model in this research shows a very similar trend to the
results found in Comer, et al. [67]. The results show the differences in the particle
efficiency are lower by around 3% each Stokes number tested. This could mainly due to
the slight variations in model geometry, meshing algorithms and drag coefficient.
123
45
Kim & Iglesias (1989)
Zhang, Asgharian & Anjilvel (1997)
40 Chan & Lippmann (1980)
Present Model
Comer (2000)
35
Particle Efficiency (%)
30
25
20
15
10
0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
Stokes Number
Figure 5-1 Validation of Current model
124
5.3 Geometric Model
After the validation of the model, the same numerical code for particle tracking was used
for the geometry from Generation 0 to Generation 4. The same geometric model used in
Chapter 4 is used for the particle tracking simulation. The dimension and cross section of
the geometry are shown in Table 4-1 and Figure 4-2 respectively.
5.4 Domain and Boundary Conditions
It was assumed that the transport medium, air, was an incompressible fluid. The flow was
assumed to be laminar. The simulation considered only inspiration particle deposition. The
start of Generation 0 was the inlet and the ends of Generation 4 were the outlets. The
continuity and momentum equations are given as
The Continuity equation
  U   0 5-10
The Momentum equation
U  U   1 p     U  U T 

 5-11
Where
125
The particles used for simulation were assumed to be spherical and non-interacting. This
meant particles did not transform into clouds. Employing an Eulerian – Lagrangian
approach, the particle trajectory equation is
d 2xp
mp   Fp
dt 2 5-12
Where
 mp is the mass of a single particle
 xp is the displacement of the particle
 t is time
 Fp is the sum of all the forces acting on the particle.
In this simulation, the major force acting on the particle was the momentum by the fluid,
hence with total drag and the particle trajectory equation is

d 2xp 1
 d p2 C Dp v  v p  v  v p
   
mp 2
dt 8 5-13
Where
126
 vp is the particle velocity
 v is the fluid velocity
 CDp is the drag coefficient of the particle
This simulation employed the Schiller Naumann Drag Model where the drag coefficient
CDp was given by:
24
C Dp 
Re

1  0.15 Re 0.687 
5-14
The particles distributed uniformly at the inlet. The number of particles placed at the inlet
was chosen to be 2000, because increasing the number of particles beyond 2000 was
unlikely to alter the particle deposition results. A particle’s trajectory ended when it had
either exited through the outlet or it had hit a wall - hence particles were assumed to stick
to the lung wall once they collided with it.
At the inlet, at Generation 0, a uniform fluid velocity was specified. At the outlet, a
uniform outlet pressure was specified. Due to the symmetry of the problem, there were
two symmetric planes, one along the XY plane and the other along the YZ plane.
In all, 24 simulations were performed and completed. The two different flow rates that
were tested were 6.55 L/min and 26.21 L/min which equates to Reynolds Numbers 500
and 2000 at the Generation 0 inlet. The three particle sizes chosen were 3, 9 and 15
microns.
These particles densities were 350, 1000, 3000 and 5000 kg/m3.
The numerical solution of the fluid flow equations (continuity and momentum equations)
and particle transport equation were carried out using a commercial finite-volume based
program CFX-5.7.
127
5.5 Results
The particle deposition efficiency is defined as:
number _ of _ particles _ deposited

[%]   100%
total _ number _ of _ particles _ entering _ region 5-15
The region identification is shown in Figure 5-2. There were a total of eight different
regions in the model being simulated. They were named according to the generation
number. After Generation 1, there was more than one branch at the same generation, so
an alphabetic character was assigned to each of these (e.g., 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 3C and 3D).
There were eight regions where the particle deposition efficiency was considered, as
shown in Figure 5-2.
128
Figure 5-2 Regions of the lung model.
The simulation here focused on particle deposition from Generation 0 to Generation 3

airways. As the velocities were high, the particle deposition was influenced more by
inertial impaction rather than sedimentation and diffusion. Figure 5-3 shows the tracks
for particles being deposited at Generation 1. It clearly shows that the particles travelled
with strong secondary flow due to the bifurcation geometry before deposition. Particle
deposition sites were similar to those found in Comer, et al. [67] and Zhang, et al. [66].
129
Figure 5-3 Tracks for particles deposited at Generation 1
130
5.6 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Density
The graphs in this section (Figure 5-4 - Figure 5-9) show how the deposition efficiency
varied with particle density at different flow rates and different particle sizes at various
generations. The Reynolds Number, specified in Figure 5-4, applied to the inlet of
Generation 0 only. The local Reynolds Number varied depending on the variations of the
velocity in different generations and different branches.
As shown in Figure 5-4 and Figure 5-7, particle deposition remained similar regardless of a
change in density when the particle size was 3 microns. For particle sizes larger than 3
microns, as shown in Figure 5-5, Figure 5-6, Figure 5-8 and Figure 5-9, the particle
deposition efficiency showed significant increases with increase in particle density.
131
2 Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C
Gen 3D
1.5
Deposition Efficiency [%]
0.5
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
Particle density [kg/m3]
Figure 5-4 Re = 500, Particle size = 3 micron
7
Gen 0
6.5 Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
6 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
5.5 Gen 3C
Gen 3D
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
132
30
Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
25 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C

Gen 3D
20
15
10
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
3
Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C
Gen 3D
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
133
50
Gen 0
Gen 1
45 Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
40 Gen 3B
Gen 3C

Gen 3D
35
30
25
20
15
10
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
70
Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
60 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C
Gen 3D
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000
134
5.7 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Size
The graphs in this section (Figure 5-10 - Figure 5-17) show how the deposition efficiency
varied with particle size at different flow rates and different particle densities at various
generations. The trend was similar to how deposition efficiency varied with particle
density. At low particle density, the particle size did not really impact on the deposition
efficiency as shown in Figure 5-10. In Figure 5-11, when particle density was 1000 kg/m^3,
the deposition did not vary greatly when particle size increased from 5 microns to 10
microns. However, the change was noticeable when particle size increased from 10
microns to 15 microns. This trend is also shown in Figure 5-12, Figure 5-13, Figure 5-14,
Figure 5-15 and Figure 5-16 at different Reynolds Numbers. In Figure 5-17, there is a sign
that the deposition for the early generation is too high (over 50%) - therefore the
deposition efficiency dropped off in later generations such as 2A and 3C.
135
2
Gen 0
Gen 1
1.8 Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
1.6 Gen 3B
Gen 3C

Gen 3D
1.4
1.2
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
Figure 5-10 Re = 500 Particle Density = 350 kg/m
3
Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
2.5 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C
Gen 3D
1.5
0.5
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
136
Gen 0
14 Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
12 Gen 3B
Gen 3C

Gen 3D
10
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
28
Gen 0
26 Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
24 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
22 Gen 3C
Gen 3D
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
137
5
Gen 0
Gen 1
4.5 Gen 2A
Gen 2B
Gen 3A
4 Gen 3B
Gen 3C

Gen 3D
3.5
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
35
Gen 0
Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
30 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
Gen 3C
Gen 3D
25
20
15
10
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
138
70
Gen 0
65 Gen 1
Gen 2A
Gen 2B
60 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
55 Gen 3C

Gen 3D
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
65
Gen 0
Gen 1
60 Gen 2A
Gen 2B
55 Gen 3A
Gen 3B
50 Gen 3C
Gen 3D
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 5E-06 1E-05 1.5E-05
Particle Size [m]
3
139
5.8 Deposition Efficiency vs. Local Stokes Number
Stokes Numbers were expected to be the most influential parameters on deposition

efficiency. Figure 5-18 shows the deposition at various Stokes Numbers at different
branches and at different Reynolds Numbers. The results in the graph are shown for
Reynolds Numbers of 500 and 2000 at the inlet. The Reynolds Numbers shown in Figure
5-18 were in fact slightly lower because the Reynolds Numbers were calculated near the
flow divider area. This decreased the flow as the cross section started getting larger.
From these result, by relating purely the Stokes Number with deposition, using the Least
Squares method, the equation can be written as:
%  50.231Stk  2.3844 5-16
This equation is in agreement with the results of particle deposition of hollow cast studies
of the respiratory system for the first six generations reported by Chan and Lippmann [85].
140
102
101
100 Gen 0 Local Re = 394

Gen 1 Local Re = 351
Gen 2A Local Re = 256
Gen 2B Local Re = 224
Gen 3C Local Re = 192
Gen 3D Local Re = 174
Gen 0 Local Re = 1593
-1
10 Gen 1 Local Re = 1397
Gen 3C Local Re = 738
Gen 3D Local Re = 696
-2
10 -3 -2 -1 0
10 10 10 10
Stk Number
Figure 5-18 Log-log plot of particle deposition efficiency in the first for generations vs. Local Stokes
number calculated from the mean velocity at the specific generation.
141
5.9 Conclusion
It was recognized that particle deposition in airways was different from generation to
generation within the model of the first four generations. This was because of the change
in the inlet conditions and the particle distribution. Some geometric factors could be
responsible for the changes in particle deposition at different generations. One such factor
was the outside curvature of the bifurcation. Figure 5-19 shows two bifurcations sharing
the same diameter ratio with different outside curvature. The outside curvature impacts
upon the fluid flow pattern quite significantly.
Figure 5-19 Bifurcations with different outside curvature, with the same diameter ratios.
By performing simulations with two different curvatures, it was determined that more
particles deposited in the model with a small outside curvature. This was because the
flow changes were more rapid, and therefore particles had less opportunity to change
directions even when they carried the same momentum in both the models. In fact, there
were 322 depositions in the large curvature model and 373 depositions for the smaller
142
curvature when 2000 particles were deployed. The local Stokes Number and Reynolds
Number were 0.125 and 2000.
The main finding that emerges in this chapter was that the computation simulation model
produced results that were in line with other researchers in the literature (Kim and
Iglesias [40], Zhang, et al. [66], Comer, et al. [67], Chan and Lippmann [85])
The empirical formulation between particle deposition and Stokes number was related by:
%  50.231Stk  2.3844 5-17
This equation provided a very rough estimation for particle deposition for the first 4
generations using the Weibel [15] symmetric model. It was possible that the relationship
might not apply to the lower respiratory systems and this required further investigation.
Therefore, the next chapter documents the asymmetrical human respiratory model that
was created to provide a more realistic airway model which could be used to represent
the upper respiratory system of a human.
143
Chapter. 6 Creation of Asymmetric Airways Model
144
6.1 Introduction
The data which was acquired and presented in Chapter 5 showed that a symmetrical
model did not accurately represent realistic human airways. At this point it is therefore
opportune to review why it was necessary to study the particle deposition in asymmetrical
airway models.
Knowledge of air flow characteristics in the tracheo-bronchial tree was essential to the
understanding of airway resistance, intrapulmonary gas mixing and deposition of airborne
particles. While imaging techniques were capable of determining the particle deposition
patterns in the airways with a reasonable degree of accuracy, this form of experimental
data represented averages over many individual airway branches (Schroter and Sudlow
[31], Chang and Masry [32]). Moreover, in vitro experiments could only measure and
analyse one set of data at a time – for example, the velocity field. On the other hand,
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) had proven to be an acceptable method for
determining detailed deposition patterns in a cost effective way, and it had been widely
used to simulate various bio-engineering problems.
Analysis techniques had often incorporated straightforward numerical approximations

(Wilquem and Degrez [51], Liu, et al. [55], Leong, et al. [59], Zhao, et al. [79], Leong, et al.
[86]) or experimental set ups (Zhao and Lieber [8], Schroter and Sudlow [31], Chang and
Masry [32]). Many earlier studies had also demonstrated the existence of a skewed
velocity profile at the outlet of a bifurcation, and the subsequent development of a
secondary flow – downstream towards the daughter branches. For example, Wilquem and
Degrez [51] used two dimensional steady air flow in a three generation airway. Wilquem
determined that velocity profiles downstream of the first junction were highly skewed,
thus leading to an important imbalance in the flow distribution downstream of the second
junction. Zhao, et al. [79] reported his two generation airways model for laminar flow and
validated the results with his experimental findings. However, in general, the literature
145
indicated clearly that there were significant differences between symmetric and
asymmetric geometries. Moreover, two dimensional (2D) representations of human
airways, which many researchers had deployed, had inadequately represented actual
phenomena because of the dominance of a radial component in the daughter branches.
Specifically, a significant difference was found in between the flow patterns predicted by
the symmetric and the asymmetric models, and also between two dimensional (2D) and
three dimensional (3D) models using CFD.
The existence of separation regions, occurring at the outer walls of a bifurcation (flow
divider), in the 2D models by Wilquem and Degrez [51], was not apparent in the 3D model
studied by Gatlin, et al. [87] – this was primarily due to 3D effects, because the swirling
flow along a tube could not be simulated in a 2D model. Other work by Lee and Goo [65]
and Asgharian and Anjilvel [88] used a square cross-section model to calculate the inertial
deposition of particles in a three-generation bifurcation model. These researchers found
that the corners of their models introduced more flow disturbances because of the
existence of corner vortices.
Much of the work uncovered during the course of the literature review, undertaken for
this Doctoral research, had been for a system of central or smaller airway junctions within
the lung, and subject to laminar flow. However, more realistic, 3D CFD multiple junction
models, in laminar flow, by Liu, et al. [55] were validated with the velocity profile
measurements of Zhao and Lieber [78]. It should also be noted that flow within the
trachea and major bronchi was turbulent for the normal range of flow-rates Luo, et al.
[57]. Flow in the upper airway, during heavy breathing, could have a Reynolds Number (Re)
as high as 9300, and therefore presented turbulent features. Although turbulence was
known to have a significant effect on the airflow and other transport processes in the
bronchial tree, numerical studies had generally assumed the flow to be laminar. However,
more recent CFD work had been undertaken on a multiple junction model, employing
146
more realistic, curved bronchi, compared transient velocity profiles with a validated single
bifurcation - Calay, et al. [54].
The studies, cited above, incorporated one- or two-generation idealized bifurcations but
little research had been focused on the asymmetry of the bronchial tree. In one example,
Liu, et al. [55] had modelled an asymmetric airway extracted from the 5th–11th branches
of the model of Weibel [15]. However, the geometry deployed in this research did not
represent the actual geometry of the human airways. Additionally, the study was primarily
focused on how flow characteristics changed with the asymmetric airways. Green [89], on
the other hand, modelled a four-generation asymmetric model of the human central
airways in accordance with the lung geometry reported by Horsfield, et al. [90]. However,
Green’s study was merely expiratory peak-flow wall shear stress – the inspiratory flow and
flow fields were not examined. More recent work by Freitas and Schröder [60] considered
a sixth generation model using steady flow (with Re = 1250), and simulated using the
Lattice-Boltzmann Method, which was another method for solving the Navier Stokes
equation. Again, this was a steady flow which did not consider any transient effects or
particle deposition.
The numerical results for fluid flow and particle deposition had been reported by Zhang,
et al. [91], and Comer, et al. [67], but these simulations were carried out using a steady
flow, and the particles were injected at a constant rate. The problem was that human
breathing was not a constant flow process, so it was important to study the transient
effects on particle deposition. These factors were partially addressed by the more recent
work of Li, et al. [68] and Zhang and Kleinstreuer [10]. Another recent study by Comerford,
et al. [70] used a co-axial tomography (CT) scan to create the lung geometries, and
employed fluid structure interaction simulations. Comerford’s study was patient specific
and it considered only nanoparticles – it did not formulate a generic particle deposition
which facilitated the generalisation of the result to the average adult. Therefore, a more
comprehensive study was still necessary in order to determine the transient particle
147
patterns in a real model of human airways – this was the basis of the Doctoral research
presented herein.
The aim of the research here was to provide quantitative information concerning the fluid
dynamics and particle deposition in the human central airways, with realistic geometry
based on the model of Horsfield, et al. [90]. This chapter documents the creation of the
CAD model and the meshing of the model using an advanced (commercial) meshing
software tool (ANSYS ICEM). A detailed explanation on advance meshing will be provided
herein.
A number of different mesh densities were generated to perform the grid independent
test and are documented here. This enabled an optimal mesh to be deployed for further
complex simulation, such as particle tracking, multiphase flow, fluid structure interaction
(future studies). The application of an optimal mesh had the effect of reducing
computation times without compromising the accuracy of the results.
148
6.2 Geometry Creation and Software Tools
In previous chapters, only symmetric airway geometries had been considered in detail. As
described in Chapter 2, the Weibel [15] geometry was an idealised geometry of the human
airways. In this chapter, the asymmetric geometry of the airways is considered. Table 6-1
describes all the dimensions of the Horsfield, et al. [16] model. Comparing the Horsfield et
al. model with Weibel [15] model, shows that the former is considerably more detailed
and has provided dimensions for 38 different branches.
From Table 6-1, it was noted that the non symmetrical portion of human airways located
mainly at the first four generation. This chapter documents the building of a computation
model that was asymmetrical for the first four generations, and the study of the fluid flow
using it in the view to test out what grid size is the most efficient for the particle
deposition study.
The airways geometry defined by Horsfield was very complicated (see Table 6-1), so it was
necessary to make the assumption that the first four generations of bifurcation were
branched in the same plane. Moreover, in addition to the Horsfield, et al. [16] model, a
lung cast model by Somso Anatomy model [92] (Figure 6-1) was acquired as a reference
guide to creating a realistic airways model.
149
Table 6-1 Horsfield airways model dimensions Horsfield, et al. [16]
Branch No. Order Diam, mm Length, mm E Flow, % of trachea Branching Angle R/d R
0 31 16 100 216544 100.0000%
1 28 12 50 98432 45.4559% 73 4.5 54
2 27 7.5 16 44416 20.5113% 48 3.5 26.25
3 26 7.3 1 30592 14.1274% 65 1.5 10.95
4 25 5 9 13760 6.3544% 28 0.5 2.5
5 24 5.5 11 13824 6.3839% 25 1.2 6.6
6 27 8 11 54016 24.9446% 44 6.3 50.4
7 26 6.5 18 43840 20.2453% 28 3 19.5
8 25 7 4.5 27008 12.4723% 17 2.7 18.9
9 24 5.5 7.5 16832 7.7730% 33 6.2 34.1
10 30 11.1 22 118112 54.5441% 35 3 33.3
11 26 7.3 15.6 47008 21.7083% 63 1.7 12.41
12 25 8.5 6.4 23776 10.9798% 18 4 34
13 29 8.9 26 71104 32.8358% 15 2.3 20.47
14 25 5.2 21 20800 9.6054% 61 8 41.6
15 28 6.4 8 50304 23.2304% 15 5.9 37.76
16 27 6 8.4 35392 16.3440% 8 11 66
17 26 6.2 14.8 27520 12.7087% 0 12.7 78.74
20 24 5.3 13.5 16832 7.7730% 14 4 21.2
23 23 3.5 11.5 7872 3.6353% 28 15.1 52.85
24 22 3.5 7.5 5952 2.7486% 8 8.7 30.45
25 20 5.5 8.5 10176 4.6993% 70 2.2 12.1
26 24 5 11.5 16832 7.7730% 36 18 90
28 20 5 8.5 10176 4.6993% 31 6 30
30 24 4 2 16832 7.7730% 40 4.2 16.8
31 19 4 13.4 6944 3.2067% 10 4 16
32 25 5.5 17 23232 10.7285% 33 1.9 10.45
33 24 4 10 10400 4.8027% 35 15.5 62
34 24 4.4 9.6 10400 4.8027% 18 13.1 57.64
35 21 4.4 6.2 14912 6.8864% 54 12.3 54.12
36 23 3.2 6.2 7872 3.6353% 58 14 44.8
37 25 4.8 6.8 13760 6.3544% 31 11.1 53.28
38 25 5.8 10.6 13760 6.3544% 35 8.9 51.62
150
Figure 6-1 Somso Anatomy Model GS4-3 (http://www.somso.de/deutsch/anatomie/gs4_3.htm)
At the time this research was undertaken, significant time and effort was devoted to
investigating the best software options for creating the 3D airways geometry. Some of the
software packages that were reviewed as part of this research included:
 Pro/Engineer
 Rhino
 CFX-Build
 Solidworks.
151
This software comparison study was conducted early in the Doctoral research program (in
2002) as the basis of decision making for this research, and so the descriptions here are
the ones that were used in order to determine the most suitable package. Clearly, given
the time lapse between the original decision making and writing of this dissertation, the
descriptions here will have changed as a result of upgrades to each of these packages. In
summary, however, the characteristics of each, as they were when the comparisons were
performed, is as follows:
(i) PTC Pro/ENGINEER [93]– this was a mechanical engineering and design CAD tool
capable of creating complex 3D models, assemblies, and 2D measured drawings.
Pro/ENGINEER offered many useful featuring tools – however, its deployment to
create an airways geometry with curvatures (and changes in the diameters of the
airways) would have been a complex task.
(ii) Rhinoceros NURBS modeling for Windows [94] – this was a stand-alone,
commercial NURBS-based modelling tool, originally a plug-in for Autodesk's
AutoCAD. The software was commonly used for industrial design, architecture,
marine design, jewellery design, CAD / CAM, rapid prototyping, reverse
engineering as well as in the multimedia and graphic design industries. Rhino 3D
specialized mainly in free-form NURBS modelling. Users would be able to create
airway geometries using the surfacing tools in Rhino 3D. However, after exporting
these as IGES files, there existed gaps between different surfaces. These gaps
created compatibility problems with the meshing tools available (CFX-build or
ICEM).
(iii) CFX-Build (Available only on CFX 5.6, not available after integrated with ANSYS
benchtop) – this was a geometry creation tool for modelling. It created geometry
from points and curves – by joining multiple curves, surfaces could be formed.
Creating airway geometry this way was not a complex task. A single bifurcation of
the airways was created using CFX-Build as a trial. However, as the geometry was
152
created by using points and curves, it was difficult to build multiple generations of
the airways.
(iv) "Solidworks (3D CAD Design Software)" [95] – this was a 3D computer-aided
design (CAD) program that executed on Microsoft Windows platforms. In the
SolidWorks 3D modelling environment, the creation of a solid or surface typically
began with the definition of a 2D or 3D sketch. There existed many similarities
between Solidworks and Pro/Engineer - however, one of the key features that was
used for creating the airway geometry was the lofting function. The lofting
functionality enabled a solid body to be created between two sketches in 3D
spaces (with or without guiding curves).
Considering the functionality of all of these packages, it was ultimately decided to deploy
Solidworks to create the geometry of the airways model. The version used at the time was
Solidworks 2002.
153
6.3 Geometry Creation using Solidworks
This section describes how the airways geometry was created through the Solidworks
application.
As a first step, one had to consider how the geometry was oriented within global
coordinates. In Solidworks, by default, there were three planes, TOP, FRONT and RIGHT
(Figure 6-2). Let us say that the trachea Generation 0 was to be created along the Y axis.
The objective was to create a sketch on the TOP plane first - with the dimensions of the
trachea (Figure 6-3)
Figure 6-2 Default planes in Solidworks.
154
Figure 6-3 Top Plane with dimensions of trachea
The next step was to extrude the sketch to create the length of the pipe (Figure 6.4). At
this point the dimensions of this part did not matter as the dimensions would need to
change once the geometry was created.
155
Figure 6-4 Extrusion of the trachea
As the geometry of the lofting was unknown at the start, the next step was to create a
guiding sketch primarily for use in construction. The construction sketch is built on to the
Front plane (Figure 6.5).
156
Figure 6-5 Guiding sketch for construction of generation 1
A plane was defined at the end of the construction sketch, such that the circle of
Generation 1 could be drawn. By default, the name for the plane was Plane 1 (Figure 6-6).
157
Figure 6-6 Building of Plane for Generation 1
A sketch of the circle for Generation 1 was created on Plane 1 (Figure 6-7).
Figure 6-7 Circle for Generation 1
158
The Lofting feature was applied by joining two circles - one circle from the extruded
section and the other on Plane 1. In addition, the start and end constraints were set to
“Normal” to the profile so that the lofting process could produce a smooth transition. A
solid curved tube was created with the start having the dimensions of Generation 0
(16mm) and end having the dimensions of Generation 1 (12mm) – Figure 6-8.
Figure 6-8 Lofting for generation 1 into a body
The same process was followed for a branch on the other side in order to complete the
bifurcation. Note that the length and curvature had to be adjusted to take into account
the fact that practical human airways may not be smooth. A completed bifurcation is
159
Figure 6-9 Completed Bifurcation
Applying the above process, together with the dimensions from Horsfield model, and with
Somso Anatomy model [92] as a reference point, the full first four generations of the
airways model were completed as shown in Figure 6-10. This was one of the first models
created to study the air flow and particle deposition.
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Figure 6-10 Upper Airways Model
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6.4 Meshing
6.4.1 Overview
In previous chapters, meshing was created using CFX Build or ANSYS Workbench. Both of
these software packages provided good tetrahedral meshing as shown in Figure 3-10. The
model validation in section 3.6 reflected that the quality of the mesh. However, there
were disadvantages in using a tetrahedral grid that lacked user control when laying out
the mesh. Further, tetrahedral grids tended to require more processing memory and
longer execution times because tetrahedrals required more elements than hexahedrals. It
was therefore important to evaluate different meshing methods for the airways model.
This section will firstly overview tetrahedral meshing – then the meshing of the
asymmetrical model, using quad elements, will be described in detail such that the
research undertaken in this Doctoral program can be extended in subsequent research.
6.4.2 Meshing methods available
Mesh generation is the practice of generating a polygonal or polyhedral mesh that

approximates a geometric domain. It is commonly referred to as “grid generation”. There
was a group of literature (Thompson, et al. [96], Thompson [97]) and software that could
be used to create structured meshing. Strictly speaking, a structured mesh could be
recognized by the characteristic that all interior nodes of the mesh had an equal number
of adjacent elements. In general, structured grid generators produced quads or
hexahedrals. In order to align elements with boundaries and physical domains, generally
the generation of a structured mesh involved complex iterative smoothing techniques and
algorithms. “Block-structuring” techniques were used when the boundaries were non-
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trivial, because blocking could divide the domain into topological blocks where structured
mesh could then be produced.
Structured meshes were generally used for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
simulations where strict alignment of elements could be required for the analysis code in
the solver or it where it was necessary to capture physical phenomena.
Unstructured mesh generation relaxed the node valence requirement which allowed any
number of elements to meet at a single node. An unstructured (or irregular) grid was a
tessellation of a part of the Euclidean plane (or Euclidean space) by simple shapes, such as
triangles or tetrahedra, in an irregular pattern. Triangle and Tetrahedral meshes were
most commonly thought of when referring to unstructured meshing, although
quadrilateral and hexahedral meshes could also be unstructured.
While there was certainly some overlap between structured and unstructured mesh
generation technologies, the main feature which distinguished the two fields was the
unique iterative smoothing algorithms employed by structured grid generators.
In previous chapters, the computational model was meshed using unstructured mesh (see
Figure 3-10, Figure 4-3, Figure 4-4)Owen [98] – the mesh only contained tetrahedral,
prism (on flat end) and quad (elements on the round wall) elements. This chapter will
develop further into the creation of a more sophisticated mesh in order to generate a
more efficient, accurate model to be used for studying the particle deposition in the
asymmetric airways model. It was a challenge to create such a model, which was both
computationally efficient and capable of producing feasible results. Significant effort was
expended on this element of the research in order to learn about different meshing
methods; how to improve the mesh by smoothing, refinement and cleaning up the
geometry.
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6.5 Meshing with ANSYS ICEM
ANSYS ICEM was a commercial engineering software package, and its primary
functionality was to convert a CAD model to a mesh model for analysis. ANSYS ICEM
provided:
 Sophisticated geometry acquisition
 Mesh generation
 Mesh editing
 A wide variety of solver outputs and post-processing.
ANSYS ICEM CFD was the only universal pre-processor for analysis including FEA, CFD and
other CAE applications (e.g., particle transport and computational electro-magnetics).
When applied in engineering applications, such as CFD and structural analysis, ANSYS
ICEM CFD's mesh generation tools offered the capability to parametrically create grids
from geometry in multi-block structured; unstructured hexahedral; tetrahedral, and
hybrid grids consisting of hexahedral, tetrahedral, pyramidal and prismatic cells – and
Cartesian grid formats combined with boundary conditions.
The algorithms for mesh generation and smoothing in ANSYS ICEM will be described
together with the meshing process. For tetrahedral meshing, ANSYS ICEM consisted of
Delaunay and advancing front as well as Laplacian smoothing. However, the specific
details of the mesh generation process were not generally made available to public users.
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6.5.1 Importing the CAD geometry
The first step of the mesh generation process required a user either to create or import
the basic geometry. One of the features of ANSYS ICEM was the advanced CAD geometry
reader and repair tools to enable a user to quickly progress to a variety of geometry
tolerant meshers and produce high quality volume or surface meshes with minimal effort.
Some of the common formats that ANSYS ICEM supported included IGES, ParaSolid, STL,
Solidworks SLD.
Earlier in this chapter, the Horsfield model had been created in Solidworks as a SLD file.
This model was imported directly into ANSYS ICEM (in some older versions of ICEM, it was
necessary for a user to export CAD file into IGES format before importing into ICEM).
Figure 6-11 shows the imported geometry model into ANSYS ICEM.
Figure 6-11 Geometry imported into ANSYS ICEM
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6.5.2 Blocking of the geometry
A block may or may not be necessary for tetrahedral generation, depending on the type of
elements that need to be meshed. However, tetrahedral elements tended to be more
difficult to control and to use to perform studies in relation to convergence. Therefore,
hexahedral elements were chosen to be used for this Horsfield model.
A block is a rectangular box that is placed and associated with geometry such that ICEM
knows how to plaster the hexahedral elements into that geometry. ICEM can then apply
an algorithm called sweeping to generate the hexahedra mesh. Sweeping was a type of
mapped hexahedral meshing, sometimes was referred as 2½ D meshing. Quadrilateral
surface mesh could be swept through a space along the block, and regular layers of
hexahedra then created at specified intervals (by user) using the same topology as the
quadrilateral surface mesh. Sweeping technique could be universal to mesh a large variety
of volumes by defining a source and target surfaces. Provided the source and target
surface had comparable topology and the surfaces were connected by a set of meshable
surfaces into a block, the quad surface elements of the source area could be swept
through the volume to generate hexahedra as shown in Figure 6-12.
Figure 6-12 Hexelements generated by sweeping - Reproduced from Owen [98]
Attention had to be taken in locating internal nodes during the sweeping process,
numerous research papers (Staten, et al. [99], Lai, et al. [100]) had been presented
addressing this issue. An example of the meshing of a tube (airway like shape) by sweep is
Figure 6-13 Mesh of a tube by sweeping, reproduced from ANSYS Documentation [50]
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It was important to ensure that a block was not distorted too much – otherwise the
elements in that specific block were also distorted causing a poor quality mesh. In this
research it was decided to choose and create blocks as shown in Figure 6-14. However, at
this stage, the blocks were not associated with the geometry and it can be seen that the
lines did not lie on the surface of the geometry. Meshing would only be successful once
the blocks were associated with the geometry.
Figure 6-14 Initial blocking in ICEM
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To associate the block with the geometry, ICEM brought the points to match with the
surface of the geometry. Figure 6-15 shows the blocks associated with the geometry, but
the blocks had many sharp corners. Notice, in the first bifurcation, on the right branch,
the block is highly distorted; meaning the angle between one surface and another is very
small. An ideal block was to have a shape like a cuboid, where all sides were 90 degrees to
each other as in Figure 6-16. This was because any topology for the source surface
sweeping through the cuboid would also produce a cuboid shape.
168
Figure 6-15 Block associated with the geometry
Figure 6-16 Cuboid is the ideal block for sweeping
Therefore the objective here was to create blocks that were rectangular, and where all the
edges were almost perpendicular at the joining node. If the block was too long and it
crossed over large amount of surface, it was possible to split it into smaller blocks and the
169
nodes followed the geometry closer. In Figure 6-17 the blocks have been split and the
nodes have been moved to create a better blocks.
Figure 6-17 Blocks has been split and nodes has been moved to create uniform blocks
After the blocks were refined properly, according to ANSYS Documentation [50], the
quality should not fall below a tolerance value of 0.3 – 0.4. The tolerance value was a
measurement of the distortion of a block. With the revised blocking, the tolerance values
for quality were all above 0.4, which is desirable for the next step. However, to further
improve the mesh, a technique called Ogrid was applied.
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6.5.3 Apply Ogrid to the geometry
Ogrid was a feature in ICEM that enabled the internal elements to be rectangular, by
placing an internal rectangular block inside the existing block. Ogrid subdivided selected
blocks into a configuration of one central block surrounded by radial blocks. In other
words, Ogrid creation capability was simply a modification of a single block (rectangular)
to a five sub-block topology. It arranges grid lines into an “O” shape to reduce skew,
where a block corner lay on a continuous curve or surface. It was recommended for
cylindrical type geometries to avoid bad internal angles at block corners (which was the
case for the lung model). Figure 6-18 shows the Ogrid of one of the bifurcation ends. The
middle of the circle now has a rectangular shape and the outer has a parallelogram.
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Figure 6-18 Ogrid feature in ICEM
It was known that using Ogrid could improve mesh quality significantly. Figure 6-19 shows
the main major pre mesh quality calculations without Ogrid. There were many elements
that had small angles, and the determinant 3x3x3 calculated was not acceptable to
produce sound results. The overall quality calculation showed that there were many
elements that fell below the value of 0.4.
Figure 6-19 The mesh quality without Ogrid. Top figure is Angle, mid figure is Determinant 3x3x3, bottom
figure is the quality
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The checks shown in Figure 6-21 are summarized as follows:
 The angle quality evaluated the maximum internal angle deviation from 90
degrees for each element. Various solvers had different tolerance limits for the
internal angle check. If the elements were distorted, and the internal angles were
small, the accuracy of the solution would decrease.
 The determinant check computed the deformation of the elements in the mesh by
first calculating of the Jacobian of each hexahedron, and then normalizing the
determinant of the matrix. A value of one represented a perfect hexahedral cube,
while a value of zero was a totally inverted cube with a negative volume.
 The mesh quality, measured on the x-axis, of all elements would be in the range
from zero to one. If the determinant value of an element was zero, the cube had
one or more degenerated edges. In general, determinant values above 0.3 were
acceptable for most solvers. The Quality histogram represented the overall quality
of all the elements.
Once the Ogrid was introduced to the block, the pre mesh quality increased significantly
as shown in Figure 6-20. All the elements were now over a 23 degree angle, the
determinant 3x3x3 calculations were all over 0.55, and the overall quality of all elements
was over 0.4. It was therefore very useful to create meshes with Ogrid when the
geometry contained cylindrical surfaces.
As well as using Ogrid, ANSYS ICEM contained smoothing and clean up algorithm to
improve the quality of the mesh. Further details on exact smoothing and clean up
procedures can be found in ANSYS Documentation [50].
173
Figure 6-20 The mesh quality with Ogrid. Top figure is Angle, mid figure is Determinant 3x3x3, bottom
figure is the quality
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6.5.4 Meshing hexahedral elements
Once the pre mesh quality became reasonable, then the mesh could be produced. As the
lung geometry had different diameters for different generations, it was important to take
this into account when meshing. The model was divided into 9 generations, with each
generation having a different element size. Five different element sizes were defined here
for performing the grid independence test as shown in Table 6-2.
Table 6-2 Five different element sizes for grid independance test
Branch No. Extra Coarse Coarse Medium Fine Ultra Fine
0 2.67 1.78 1.33 1.07 0.94
1 2.00 1.33 1.00 0.80 0.71
2 1.25 0.83 0.63 0.50 0.44
6 1.33 0.89 0.67 0.53 0.47
10 1.85 1.23 0.93 0.74 0.65
11 1.22 0.81 0.61 0.49 0.43
13 1.48 0.99 0.74 0.59 0.52
14 0.87 0.58 0.43 0.35 0.31
15 1.07 0.71 0.53 0.43 0.38
The element size was calculated by dividing the generation diameter by the following
numbers:
 Extra coarse mesh: 6.
 Coarse mesh: 9
 Medium mesh: 12
 Fine mesh: 15
 Ultra fine mesh: 18.
These were entered into ICEM through setting mesh parameters by parts as shown in
Figure 6-21.
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Figure 6-21 Setting mesh parameters for parts
By using the mesh parameters above, the resultant mesh is shown in Figure 6-22.
Figure 6-22 Resultant mesh for Extra Coarse Mesh
176
To demonstrate the grid mesh size differences clearly, Figure 6-23 shows the end view of
the extra coarse and fine mesh. Note that the mesh around the wall is much denser
compare to the internal geometry. This was important because fine resolution was
required for capturing the changes occurring inside the boundary layer between the flow
and the wall. Once the mesh was created, it was possible to export the mesh from ICEM
to different commercial packages, in this case is CFX. This mesh could also be used for FEA
and other analysis if required.
Figure 6-23 End view of Extra Coarse and Fine Mesh
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6.6 Physical Definition and Boundary Conditions
Two steady tracheal flow rates were used in this study:
 5.0 L/sec
 1.2 L/sec.
These represented resting and moderate exercise conditions. The tracheal flow was
distributed among the five lobar bronchi according to the approximate lobar volumes at
75% TCL as reported by Horsfield, et al. [16]. This is shown in Table 6-3. This tracheal flow
rate had also been used in the experiment conducted by Chang and Masry [32] in their
acrylic constructed model.
Table 6-3 Tracheal Flow Distribution

Lobe Right Right Right Left Left Total
Upper Middle Lower Upper Lower
Static lung volume at 75% 19 10 26 19 26 100
Horsfield lung model 21 9 25 20 25 100
These flow percentages were useful as they made it possible to calculate the boundary
conditions for the five outlets to each lobe. As noted earlier, most of the CFD simulations
conducted by other researchers (such as Liu, et al. [56]) generally used forced ventilation,
as only the velocity or the mass flow rate at the inlet was known. The approach here was
to make use of the flow percentages and assign the mass flow rate at the outlet. This way,
natural ventilation was assumed and the flow field would be more realistic. At the trachea
inlet, it was assumed the pressure was similar to the atmospheric pressure. Therefore, we
set:
prel  0
6-1
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The wall was assumed to be no slip wall. It was decided to leave the cartilage rings study
for further research as it would require a large amount of computing power and
significant time to get realistic measurements of the cartilage rings. Further information
this assumption can be found in Musante and Martonen [101] who studied the flow field
of a pipe with some artificial addition of cartilage rings, and which lacked realistic
measurements. Therefore, here, we assumed the wall to have zero velocity.
vwall  0 6-2
For each outlet, we assigned the flow percentage multiplied by the mass at the inlet.
6-3
This condition would make the air flow become natural ventilation rather than forced
ventilation.
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6.7 Grid Independence Test
A “grid independence test” was carried out to ensure that the results were insensitive to
the size of grid. Only the inspiratory flow was used for investigating the grid
independence for a single bifurcation model (for a steady flow) because inspiratory flow
was more prone to the onset of turbulence than expiratory flow.
There were five different meshes on which to run the grid independence test. Table 6-4
shows the statistics of the five different mesh configurations. The mesh elements used in
this test were hexahedral as they could be controlled (compared to tetrahedral). Also,
when running simulations with hexahedral elements, the same convergence could be
achieved with fewer elements.
Table 6-4 Five different mesh configurations

Nodes Elements Computing Time
Extra Coarse 47720 43750 31minutes
Coarse 173543 164288 1 hour13 minutes
Medium 430060 413215 1 hour 53 minutes
Fine 862875 836136 3 hours 15 minutes
Ultra Fine 1262133 1227776 4 hours 51 minutes
From Table 6-4, it became evident that the nodes and elements increased in a quadratic
manner. Also the nodes and elements had a one to one ratio because this was a
hexahedral elements mesh. The grid independence test was performed using the steady
flow rate of 5.0L/sec - this corresponded to maximum air intake during a breathing cycle.
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6.8 Results for 5 different mesh configurations
In this section, the results for the five different meshes are presented. The results will be
compared station by station. The model was labelled in the same fashion as Chang and
Masry [32] - see Figure 6-24. Also the station locations were defined in a similar way to
Chang and Masry [32] experiments as in
Figure 6-24 Branch name denoted as lower case letter and Horsfield generation number is labelled inside
the bracket. (Coordinate system is also shown in figure)
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Table 6-5 Locations of the stations of measurement
Station No. Branch Horsfield Diameter Distance from bifurcation
Generation No. d (mm) l (mm)
1 a 0 16 74
2 a 0 16 44
3 a 0 16 16
4 b 1 12 10
5 c 10 11.1 5.6
6 b 1 12 40
7 d 2 7.5 16.2
8 e 6 8 12.5
9 f 13 8.9 16
10 g 11 7.3 12
11 h 15 6.4 7.1
12 i 14 5.2 20
There were a total of 12 stations located in nine different branches as shown in Figure
6-25. Stations 1-3 had two lines - one line representing the horizontal, one line
representing vertical. The other stations had two additional lines representing the
diagonal.
To understand exact location of the cross section lines A-A’, B-B’, C-C’ and D-D’, consider
Station 1 as an example. The cross section is viewed from bottom to top, while line A-A’
represents a line on the front plane A corresponding to the left, and A’ corresponding to
the right. Line C-C’ represents the line into the page where C is closer to the reader. This
convention is important when analysing the results for each station as it will be referred
to regularly. The velocities on these lines were compared for each different mesh. A final
conclusion was drawn as to which mesh size was the best for the simulation, considering
both accuracy and computing time.
182
Figure 6-25 Locations of 12 stations and top right hand corner has the cross section of a measurement
station viewed from proximal position.
The results from Station 1 to Station 3 are shown in Figure 6-26. The results for the five
different mesh configurations produced very similar results. This was because the results
were in the same plane.
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10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)
6 Extra Coarse 6 Extra Coarse
Coarse Coarse
5 Medium 5 Medium
Fine Fine
4 Ultra Fine 4 Ultra Fine
3 3
2 2
1 1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0
X 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X
Figure 6-26 Station 1A Figure 6-27 Station 1C
10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)
Coarse Coarse
5 Medium 5 Medium
Fine Fine
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X X
10 10
9 9
8 8
7 7
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)

Coarse Coarse
5 Medium 5 Medium
Fine Fine
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X X
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Figure 6-32 shows the results at Station 4. This was the first station after the bifurcation.
The results showed significant differences between the four different cross sections for
each of the mesh configurations. It can also be seen that the results from the coarse mesh
produced significantly different results from either the fine or ultra-fine mesh.
As shown in each of the charts in Figure 6-32, it seemed that the results for the coarse
mesh did not contain the full detail. However, and as the mesh got finer and finer, the
actual characteristics of the flow started to become visible. It was noticeable that the
results between fine and ultra-fine mesh configurations only differed by 2% - as this was
minimal, it meant that further refinement of the mesh would not produce significantly
better results.
In summary, it was feasible to use the “fine” mesh which was sufficient for the
computational exercises for the rest of the simulations - for both fluid flow and particle
deposition.
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9 9
Extra Coarse Extra Coarse
Coarse Coarse
8 Medium
8 Medium
Fine Fine
6 6
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X X
4A 4B
8 8
7 7
6 6
5 5
Velocity (m/s)
Velocity (m/s)
Extra Coarse
4 4
Coarse
Medium
3 Fine 3
Ultra Fine Extra Coarse
Coarse
2 2 Medium
Fine
1 1 Ultra Fine
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
X X
4C 4D
Figure 6-32 Results of station 4
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6.9 Conclusion
This chapter has documented the creation of a more realistic airway lung model based on
Horsfield, et al. [16]. The purpose of this chapter was to enunciated the exact steps
involved in creating the geometry using a commercial CAD software package Solidworks.
The CAD model was then imported into commercial mesh generation software called
ANSYS ICEM. Step by step meshing procedures were explained such that further
improvement and extension of the work could be undertaken. Significant effort was put
in to creating the correct mesh as this was a very important aspect of CFD. The quality of
the mesh impacted upon both results accuracy and computation time.
A grid independence test demonstrated that there was very little variation between the
fine mesh and ultra-fine mesh, so the fine mesh was utilised for particle deposition
simulation.
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Chapter. 7 Numerical Analysis on Particle Deposition in
Asymmetrical Human Upper Airways under Steady and Transient
Conditions
188
7.1 Introduction
In Chapter 6, a substantial amount of documentation was provided to illustrate how a new

asymmetrical model was created successfully and optimized for simulation purposes. This
chapter documents how the newly created model was used in order to study particle
deposition in the human upper airways.
189
7.2 Airways Geometry model
The numerical simulation used the airways model created in Chapter 6 (shown in Figure
7-1). The geometry for the asymmetric model was created by closely following the values
defined by Horsfield, et al. [16]. This model was only an in-plane model, meaning that all
bifurcation branches split along the same plane. However, it was felt that the branching
angle would capture the important aspects relating to how particle were being deposited
inside the airways.
There were two major reasons why the model being used was in-plane only. Firstly, the
exact out-of-plane model was not well described in the literature. Secondly, the results
that were available were difficult to analyse. These reasons constrained the simulation to
focus on in-plane geometry.
Figure 7-1 Airway model for transient particle deposition simulation.
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7.3 Fluid and Particles Properties
The fluid for the airways domain was air at 25C with the following properties:
 Density at 25C = 1.185 [kg m3]
 Dynamic viscosity = 1.831 e-5 [kg /ms].
The particles that were injected into the model at each time step were solid particles,
namely “Aerosol”. The density of the “Aerosol” was 350 [kg/m^3] which was similar to
the density of many common fibres, dust particles and smoke particles. There were, in
total, 50,000 particles entering the domain each second. The number of particles entering
at each time step was the total number of particles divided by the number of time steps in
each second.
There were, in total, 5 simulations, each with a different particle diameter being injected
at the inlet. The simulations conducted involved 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 micron particles.
Changing the diameter of the particle implied a change of Stokes Number and, in turn,
enabled the analysis of particle deposition versus Stokes Numbers.
The air was inhaled by the lung and it was driven by pressure - the particles were carried
by the air. Therefore, there was no buoyancy effect on the particles or on the air, so the
buoyancy properties of the particles and air were not used. The theory behind the particle
tracking and the particle transport theory are described in ANSYS Documentation [50].
Each of the parameters discussed here will affect the formulation to the momentum
transfer equation.
191
7.4 Boundary conditions of the model Airways
For transient simulation, the fluid flow condition at the inlet had to be known for the
whole breathing cycle. The realistic human inhalation waveforms used in the simulations,
documented in this chapter, were the three breathing patterns from Zhang and
Kleinstreuer [10] – these being for resting, light exercise and heavy exercise.
The mean volume air flow rate against time is plotted in Figure 7-2 to Figure 7-4 with the
results as in Table 7-1.
Table 7-1 Inhalation Results

Condition Inhalation Cycle Maximum Flow Exhalation Cycle Reynolds Number at
(Seconds) (L/Sec) (Seconds) Max flow rate
Resting 2 0.33 2.3 1510.71
Light Exercise 1.8 0.7 2.0 3204.54
Heavy Exercise 1.18 1.35 1.2 6180.19
Figure 7-2 Measured resting breathing cycles
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Figure 7-3 Measured light exercise cycles
Figure 7-4 Measured heavy exercise cycles
In the work of Li, et al. [68], at each time step, an analytical expression of the transient,
developed flow in a straight tube was employed to calculate the inlet velocity profiles.
According to Buchanan [102] and Womersley [103], having a parabolic-like inlet condition
was more realistic than a constant velocity at the inlet. This was true because the work of
193
Li, et al. [68] assumed uniform pressures at all exits - the inlet condition and the geometry
had significant effects on the outlets. The major issue with their work was that the flow
for each outlet was controlled by the geometry. This assumption may not realistically
determine the actual flow characteristics inside the human airways. The human lung is
composed of five major lung lobes, two on the left and three on the right. The flow is
driven by pressure differences - therefore, assuming uniform pressures for each lobe, all
the outlets will not be simulating the flow of the human lung because it is possible that
the pressures at the outlets are all different in actual human lungs.
Learning from these simulations, the work documented in this chapter takes another
approach. The geometry of the lung model here was constructed based on the model of
Horsfield, et al. [16]. In their published work, these authors measured the flow
percentage to each branch (Table 6-1). These flow percentages could be used as a
boundary condition. The assumption here was that the flow to each lung lobe was the
same throughout the breathing cycle. In the simulation, the flow at the inlet is 100%
distributed as:
 20.5% to Left Upper (LU)
 25% to Left Lower (LL)
 21.7% to Right Upper (RU)
 9.6% to Right Middle (RM)
 23.2% to Right Lower (RL).
The flow direction during the inhalation phase is shown in Figure 7-5. Each one of the five
outlets had their own percentage of fluid passing through at each time step. The boundary
condition used mass flow rate, which was the specific percentage multiplied by the mass
flow at the inlet.
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Figure 7-5 Boundary flow conditions during inhalation phase.
Rather than enforcing the trachea as an inlet boundary, meaning the flow direction has to
be flowing into the domain, instead, an opening boundary was used because the flow may
not always be flowing into the domain when the flow is very slow. In fact, this is The
opening boundary condition was set with an opening pressure boundary with zero relative
pressure. That is:
prel  0
7-1
The flow direction was normal to the boundary, meaning that there were no swirls in the
flow.
195
The Reynolds Number in the airways did not exceed 2000 within the full inhalation cycle.
Therefore, a reasonable amount of “medium” (Intensity = 5%) turbulence was applied for
this opening boundary condition.
This simulation simulated particle depositions where particles were injected at the
opening uniformly. Particles were equally spaced at the trachea opening. Zero slip
velocity was applied between the particles and the continuous phase at the opening
boundary. This meant that the particles were travelling at the same velocity as the air
when they entered the domain.
For each simulation, the total number of particles being injected into the inlet was
100,000. The simulation divided the flow into 40 time steps – therefore each time step
would have 2,500 particles being injected. The particle sizes being simulated were 2, 4, 6,
8 and 10 microns. All of these diameters assumed that the particles were spherical in
shape.
The walls of the trachea and bronchi were lined with mucus, therefore no slip boundary
was applied to all the walls. The carinal rings were not considered in the simulation as the
structure of the model would be too complex to create. However, there was literature
describing the effect of carinal rings, as studied by Martonen, et al. [104].
The wall could be the end trace for some of the particles - the walls had moisture, and
particles would stick to them and not bounce off. The parallel and perpendicular
restitution coefficients, which described the action of particles when they hit a wall, were
both set to zero. This meant that all the kinetic energy that a particle carried would be
absorbed by the wall. This simulation focused on the particle paths rather than the effect
of particle clouding or clotting of the airways. Therefore, once a particle had collided with
the wall, the particle was assumed to have exited the domain.
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7.5 Turbulence model
During the peak flow of the inhalation cycle, the Reynolds Number reaches over 2300 in
magnitude, therefore, turbulence model is required for the transient simulation.
According to ANSYS Documentation [50], ANSYS CFX has numerous models to
approximate turbulence based on Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations.
There are in total of at least 16 turbulence models (more can be found in later version of
ANSYS CFX) that can be used and they can be categorized into four groups.
1. Laminar model.
2. Eddy-viscosity models.
3. Reynolds-Stress Models (RSM).
4. Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and Detached Eddy Simulation (DES).
According to ANSYS Documentation [50], because the fluid flow inside the human airways
geometry is a flow with strong streamline curvature and it contains secondary flow.
Reynolds Stress Models had shown superior predictive performance in comparison with
eddy-viscosity models. Therefore, the simulations documented in this chapter adopted
the BSL Reynolds Stress model as it was better suited to the flow conditions under
consideration.
Appendix A contains the output file for the ANSYS CFX Solver (in the CFX Expression
Language). The file contains all the parameters related to:
 Boundary conditions.
 Fluid properties.
 Particle properties.
 Time steps.
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 Turbulence model.
 Convergence criteria.
198
7.6 Fluid flow Results
7.6.1 Airflow patterns under transient flow with particles
The airflow patterns in the lung airways are primarily determined by
 The fluid properties.
 The inlet condition.
 The geometric characteristics.
The airflow patterns in the airways have been covered and documented in considerable
detail in the preceding chapters. However, a brief recap of the fluid flow pattern is
presented herein in order to compare the results of the transient model to those of the
steady state, as well as the laminar model with the turbulence model.
7.6.2 Fluid Flow Velocity Profile
In Chapter 4, the velocity profiles for different stations were recorded in the symmetric
airways model. Here, the velocity profiles are recorded in a similar manner. The
simulation that was used for this analysis was the resting condition. Snap shots of the fluid
flow were taken at time equals to
 0.4s
 0.8s
 1.2s
 1.6s.
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The reason for taking snap shots at these times was because at time of 0.4s and 0.8s, the
flow was under acceleration. The maximum flow rate at trachea was at a time of 1.2s. The
snap shot at 1.6 was taken to study the flow under deceleration. The Reynolds Numbers
at the trachea for each of these times is listed in Table 7-2.
Table 7-2 Reynolds Number at time at 0.4, 0.8, 1.2 and 1.6s
Flow rate at the Volume flow Average velocity
Time (s) trachea (l/s) rate (m^3/s) (m/s) Re at trachea
0.4 0.24 0.000240 0.943140 1098.699334
0.8 0.322 0.000322 1.265380 1474.088273
1.2 0.335 0.000335 1.316467 1533.601154
1.6 0.295 0.000295 1.159277 1350.484598
The profiles are on the mid plane (XY Plane) of the model which were denoted by A-A’ in
Figure 7-1. These profiles should be sufficient to study the flow characteristic.
Figure 7-6 to Figure 7-9 shows the flow profile at Stations 3, 4 and 5. This figure clearly
shows that with an asymmetric airways model, the flow divided unevenly, which would be
the same in the case of a realistic human lung. However, even though the flow was highly
skewed, in all 4 time steps, no reverse flow was noticed, meaning that no flow separation
occurred.
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Figure 7-6 Flow profile for Station 3, 4 and 5 at T=0.4s
Figure 7-7 Flow profile for Station 3, 4 and 5 at T=0.8
201
202
Figure 7-10 to Figure 7-21 show the fluid flow profile at Stations 6-12 at different time
steps. From all these snap shots, there was no significant difference at each of the time
steps, apart from different magnitude of the flow. It is also important to note that the
flow characteristic at T=1.6 was very similar to the flow characteristic at T=0.4. This shows
that it was difficult to detect the differences between the flow acceleration and
deceleration.
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Figure 7-10 Flow profile for station 6, 7 and 8 at T=0.4
204
T=1.6
205
Figure 7-14 Flow profile for station 9 and 10 at T=0.4
206
T=1.6
207
208
209
7.6.3 Secondary flow profile under transient flow
In Chapter 4, the study of secondary flow in a symmetrical airway model was presented.
Secondary flow was also exhibited in the simulation. This was because the angle of the
bifurcation was large enough to cause the flow to have empty vicinity near the outside
wall downstream after the bifurcation. Due to this empty vicinity, flow was drawn side
ways – this was the main cause of the secondary flow.
After comparison, the secondary flow did not vary significantly at different time steps.
The noticeable differences were the magnitude only, and a small shift in the centre of the
vortex. Therefore, the results of only one time step at t=1.2 is presented here (Figure
7-22). The camera view for all the vector plots are from viewed from the downstream.
Station 3 Station 4
Station 5 Station 6
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Station 7 Station 8
Station 9 Station 10
Station 11 Station 12
Figure 7-22 Vector plots of slice at different station showing secondary flow
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Figure 7-22 shows all the vector plots for Station 3 to Station 12. Stations 1 and 2 are
omitted because their plots are the same as those for Station 3.
The observations for the various stations are as follows:
(i) Station 3 shows the flow starting to have the streamline direction by the
bifurcation - the vectors are pointing outwards from the vertical middle line.
(ii) Station 4 shows the flow has two vortices, the top one is clockwise and the bottom
one is anti-clockwise. As discussed earlier, when the flow is divided at the
bifurcation, the volume near the outside wall of the bend will have to be filled.
Therefore, flow will transverse to the side and this is the main cause of the
secondary flow. The same principle can be applied to Station 5, which is a mirror
image to Station 4.
(iii) Station 6 shows that, after a short relatively straight distance, the secondary flow
starts to disappear. However, the vortices still exist in the vector plot at Station 6.
From Chapter 4, the simulation of fluid flow under steady conditions proved that if
there were vortices in the vector plot before a bifurcation, the secondary flow of
the downstream station will have double vortices. This is also the case for Station 7
and Station 8. Due to the asymmetric bifurcation, the locations of the vortex
centres are different between the two stations.
(iv) The bifurcation on the left side of Station 5 branches off slightly differently
compare to the ones previously described. On the second bifurcation, the Station 9
plane is the branch that is branched off, while Station 10 is the straight tube from
Station 5. From this, it is expected that Station 9 will have secondary flow, while
Station 10 will have small vortices due to the vortices that exist in Station 5. Station
9 has double vortices which are inherited from Station 5.
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(v) While Station 10 does not have strong secondary flow, Station 11 and Station 12’s
secondary flow mainly exhibit a single mirror vortex rather than the double vortex
similar to Station 4 and Station 5.
In summary, during the first few generations of the airways, notably different secondary
flows were recorded in different branches. None of the branches had more than double
vortices.
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7.7 Particle deposition Results
7.7.1 Overview
Particle deposition during transient inhalation (focusing on both relations between release
time and deposition fraction (DF) as well as release position and deposition sites) was
analysed. The results are presented in this section for all three breathing patterns. The
first analysis will examine the relationship between deposition fraction and Stokes
Number. The second analysis will investigate the release position in relation to deposited
location.
7.7.2 Stokes Number Analysis to predict particle deposition fraction
The Stokes Number is defined as:
 p d p2U
Stk  7-2
18D
Where
  p is the density of a spherical particle
 d p is the particle diameter
 U is the velocity
  is the dynamic viscosity
 D is the diameter of the tube
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The Stokes Numbers (St) for the inlet, for different conditions, are plotted in Figure 7-23 to
Figure 7-25. Stokes Number is a dimensionless number corresponding to the behaviour of
the particles interacting with a fluid. It is defined as the ratio of the stopping distance of a
particle to a characteristic dimension of the obstacle. The Stokes Number equation above
is defined for particles travelling inside circular tube.
For Stokes Numbers greater than one, particles will continue in a straight line as the fluid
turns around the obstacle - therefore particles will hit the wall and deposit onto the wall.
For Stokes Numbers less than one, particles will follow the fluid flow very closely.
2 micron
0.3 4 micron
6 micron
8 micron
10 micron
0.25
0.2
Stokes Number
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
Figure 7-23 Stokes number vs time for resting condition
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2 micron
0.6 4 micron
6 micron
0.55 8 micron
10 micron
0.5
0.45
Stokes Number 0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
Figure 7-24 Stokes number vs time for light exercise condition
2 micron
1.2 4 micron
6 micron
8 micron
10 micron
0.8
Stokes Number
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
Figure 7-25 Stokes number vs time for heavy exercise condition
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From Figures 7-11 to 7-13, the Stokes Number for 2 micron particles was less than 0.01,
therefore minimal particles were deposited. On the other hand, the Stokes Number for 10
micron particles, under the heavy exercise condition, exceeded the value of one, and
therefore a large deposition of particles occurred.
7.7.3 Transient Deposition Fraction
Deposition fraction in a transient simulation is defined as:
number _ of _ deposited _ particles

DF t    100%
number _ of _ particles _ entering _ at _ time _ t 7-3
The dependence of DF on particle-release times for a range of different particles from 2

microns to 10 microns are presented in Figure 7-26 to Figure 7-28.
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2 micron
4 4 micron
6 micron
8 micron
3.5 10 micron
3
Deposition Fraction
2.5
1.5
0.5
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
Figure 7-26 Transient particle deposition fractions for different particle size at a full inhalation cycle under
resting condition.
For the resting condition, the particle deposition did not start until a time of 0.1 into the
inhalation cycle. This was due to the short period of time for particles released at time
step zero before reaching down into the first bifurcation. As the flow was under
acceleration, the particle depositions increased with time, with the maximum deposition
fraction reaching approximately 3% for all particles sizes being simulated. The deposition
fraction fluctuated from time step to time step. The trend line for the variation shows
that the deposition fraction was related to the Stokes Number. The figure also
demonstrated that, during the acceleration phases of the inhalation, the deposition
fraction was higher compared the deceleration phase.
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2 micron
6 4 micron
6 micron
8 micron
10 micron
Deposition Fraction
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
light exercise.
For the light exercise condition, the particle deposition occurred slightly earlier than it did
in the resting condition. For the 10 micron particle case, the deposition fraction increased
to 4% very rapidly. However, the deposition peaked at a time of 0.6 of the time scale,
reaching 5%. As expected, the deposition fraction increased with increase in particle size.
Once again, the trend line for the deposition fraction mimicked the shape of the flow
curve - in turn, the shape of the Stokes Number vs time relationship.
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2 micron
16 4 micron
6 micron
8 micron
14 10 micron
12
Deposition Fraction
10
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Time/Total Time
heavy exercise.
For heavy exercise, the deposition behaved slightly differently to the previous two
conditions. The deposition fraction had a sudden increase from zero to 5%. However, the
trend for the deposition fraction increased over time – for the 10 micron particle’s case,
the deposition fraction increased from 5% and peaked at time 0.7, reaching 13.5%. The
deposition fraction followed the trend of the Stokes Number vs time graph.
Overall, it was observed that the deposition fractions were strongly influenced by the
particle release times for a given inhalation waveform. As can be expected, for all Stokes
Numbers and flow rates, the DF was low if particles were released in the early stage of the
inhalation period and then increased with higher airflow rates.
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Especially for large mean Stokes numbers, say,
St mean  1,
DF t  followed Re in t  qualitatively.
This implied that the magnitude of DF was strongly influenced by the Stokes Number. For
a small Stokes Number (e.g., St mean  0.05 ) DF was less dependent on the Stokes Number’s
variation. As the particle size increased, the transient effect was more important. This was
because particle deposition was not a linear function of Stokes Number, and particle
deposition could increase dramatically at larger flow rates due to impaction.
When particles were released at different time levels, with their associated instantaneous
flow rates, their residence times and Stokes Number ranges varied. In summary, the
Stokes Number dominated particle deposition, while at high Stokes Numbers the inlet
waveform strongly influenced the DF t  distribution. The turbulence effect on particle
deposition was minor, probably because the influence of turbulence was small close to
the wall.
The DF t  results from the simulation, when compared to Li, et al. [68], appeared to be
lower for all cases. However, direct comparisons were not made here as the turbulence
model, geometry, particle size range and breathing pattern were all different.
Overall, the drawback of using the deposition fraction for analysis was the lack of
consideration of local particle deposition. The results did not show the walls to which the
particles were being deposited. For this reason, local deposition and release position will
be investigated in Section 7.7.4.
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7.7.4 Overall Particle Deposition Pattern
The overall particle deposition was an important phenomenon to understand as this

would provide insight into how geometry affected particle deposition. The particle
deposition results were in 3D and it is difficult to present the same level of detail in print.
To clarify the display of the results, colours are used to display the particle tracks. The
particle tracks for the deposited particle will use the specified colours as shown in Figure
7-29.
Figure 7-29 Upper airways generation labels and colour codes.
Figure 7-30 shows the particle tracks at time = 0.1154s, where particles had just started
depositing. At this time step, the majority of particles were deposited onto the walls of
Gen 1, Gen 6, Gen 11 and Gen 14 - because these were the walls that had the greatest
change in geometry. For example, comparing Gen 10 to Gen 1, Gen 1 had a stronger
branching angle of 48, while Gen 10 branching angle is only 35 - therefore more particles
deposited onto Gen 1’s wall while Gen 10 had minimal deposition.
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Gen 2, Gen 13 and Gen 15 did not have any particle deposition at this time step. This was
either because the branching angle was small or the particles still hadn’t arrived at the
branch.
Figure 7-30 Particle tracks at time = 0.1154s for heavy exercise and 10 micron particles conditions
At time = 0.5193, as shown in Figure 7-31, there were many more particles being
deposited, because the flow rate from the inlet was very high, and because this was close
to the peak flow rate for heavy exercise. Notice that because of the acceleration of the
flow, the particle deposition did not just occur at the region that was close to the flow
divider. For Gen 1, there were particles being deposited on the upper side - away from
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the flow divider. As expected, because the branching angles were small for Gen 10, Gen
13 and Gen 15, they all had very little particle deposition. From the results, one could
conclude that the branching angle was a major factor from the geometry that affected the
deposition.
At time = 1.0963s (Figure 7-20), the results showed more particles being deposited, and
they were, in their distribution, more spread out compare to time = 0.5193s. Note that in
Gen 1, there were more particles being deposited on the wall that was away from the flow
divider. The diagram suggests that the particles may have travelled very close to the wall
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before their deposition in many cases. Again, Gen 10, Gen 13 and Gen 15 showed minimal
deposition.
The results for light exercise conditions (Figure 7-21) were very similar to those in the
heavy exercise conditions, but sparser because of the lower flow rate (which meant a
lower Stokes Number). The main point of interest was at Gen 14, where some particles
travelled backwards slightly before deposition, meaning that, in Gen 14, there was a small
reverse flow occurring. From this analysis, it was evident that the particle deposition and
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the geometry had a close relationship where branching angle is the major factor causing
particle deposition.
2 Micron 6 Micron
10 Micron
Figure 7-33 Particle tracks at time = 1.0963s for light exercise and 10 micron particles
conditions
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The analysis has only looked at the results qualitatively. A quantitative analysis is
documented in Sections 7.7.5 and 7.7.6.
7.7.5 Release Position of Deposited Particle
Another component of the analysis in the transient simulation was the release position of
the deposited particle. Understanding the release position of deposited particles had
major implications for inhaled drug aerosol targeting.
The snapshots of the release position of particles for light exercise conditions, with
particle sizes of 10 microns are shown in Figure 7-34. The cross section is taken at the top
view of the trachea. The colour denotes the specific wall to which a particle deposits – as
per previous sections.
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Figure 7-34 Snap shot of release position at time step t = 1.7907s under light exercise breathing
conditions with 10 micron particles.
228
For the light exercise condition, the release positions of particle depositions in different
lung generations were confined to key areas. For example, the release positions of
particles depositing in Gen 0, Gen 1 and Gen 10 regions were mainly at the centre and
along the wall. For particles depositing in the second bifurcation region, for example Gen
6, their release areas were along two curved lines - some rare locations were close to the
top and bottom walls. Particles depositing in Gen 2 were fewer than those in Gen 6. The
release positions only contributed to part of the Gen 6 particle release positions - near the
centre only.
The release positions of particles depositing in Gen 11 and Gen 13 were very similar - they
formed two curved lines on the left, and those curved lines were closer to the outer wall
compare with the particles depositing in Gen 6. This was because Gen 10 is a lot shorter
than Gen 1.
The release positions of particles depositing in Gen 14 were on two curved lines with
lower curvature than those in Gen 11 and Gen 13. Those lines were also located closer to
the centre. Gen 15 only had two circular spots on the two curved lines of Gen 14, as Gen
15 had minimal deposition in comparison.
To compare how the particle sizes would affect the release position, Figure 7-35 shows
the release position snap shots for 3 different particle sizes, under the same time and
condition. From the figure, it is apparent that there were no significant differences.
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2 micron 6 micron
10 micron
Figure 7-35 Release positions for different particle sizes under light exercise condition at t =
1.79s
For the heavy exercise condition, it should be noted that at t = 0.5193s, inhalation took
place during the acceleration period and, at t=1.0963s, it was in the deceleration phase
(Figure 7-24). Although the DFs were different at these two particular times, the particles
which were released from the same inlet position deposited basically at close proximity.
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t = 0.5193 t = 1.0963
Figure 7-36 Release position for deposited particles of 6 micron under heavy exercise at different time
steps.
Comparing the release position of deposited particles for two different breathing
conditions (Figure 7-25), the results showed very similar patterns with minor overall
differences. For the heavy exercise conditions, there were more particles deposited in Gen
0 - this was due to the high flow rate, meaning higher turbulence along the wall. The
shape of the curve lines for Gen 14 was slightly different – in the case of light exercise, the
curve appeared to be a bell shape curve. Also, notice that overall, the release location for
heavy exercise appeared to expand and was closer to the outer wall.
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Light exercise Heavy exercise
Figure 7-37 Comparison of release position for two different breathing at 6 micron at time step 11.
From this exercise, the results showed that the release position did not vary significantly
with change in particle size and time. However, the release positions changed slightly with
different breathing conditions.
7.7.6 Particle Continuation into Lower Airways
While most of the previous analyses focused on the particle deposition, another aspect
that was important was that related to the particles that continued further down the
airways. This section will study the release position for particles being exited and will also
study the particle exit pattern.
Figure 7-38 shows the five different exit location for particles. They are named as:
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 Left Upper (LU)
 Left Lower (LL)
 Right Upper (RU)
 Right Mid (RM)
 Right Lower (RL).
In order to distinguish the different exit particles, colour was used to separate the
differences. Figure 7-39 shows the five release position regions where particles were
being exited.
Figure 7-38 5 different exit location for particles
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The results for different particles sizes and different time steps are not presented here
because they were all largely similar. This meant that if a particle was released in the RL
region, the chance of this particle being exited in the Right Lower lung lobe was very high.
However, as can be seen in the diagram, there were regions where particle release
positions overlapped or were very close to one another. Those were the areas where
particles were deposited as well - by comparing those curves with the region boundary.
Figure 7-39 Release position of exit particles for 10 micron under light exercise.
Another way to analyse the results is to study the exit proportion. Table 7-3 shows the
three different particle sizes exit to different lung lobes under light exercise. In
percentage terms, there was little variation when comparing the particle percentage with
the fluid flow percentage. As stated in Section 7.3, the fluid flow percentages were:
 20.5% to Left Upper (LU)
234
 25% to Left Lower (LL)
 21.7% to Right Upper (RU)
 9.6% to Right Middle (RM)
 23.2% to Right Lower (RL).
This meant that the percentage amount of particle exiting could also be estimated by the
amount of fluid flow to each of the lung lobes.
Table 7-3 Exit proportion under light exercise

LL LU RL RM RU Total
Light 2 micron 23046 17869 20240 8600 19796 89551
25.74% 19.95% 22.60% 9.60% 22.11% 100.00%
Light 6 micron 23245 17445 20298 8850 19265 89103
26.09% 19.58% 22.78% 9.93% 21.62% 100.00%
Light 10 micron 23411 16603 20436 9093 18111 87654
26.71% 18.94% 23.31% 10.37% 20.66% 100.00%
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7.8 Conclusions
This chapter documented the full investigation of particle deposition under realistic
transient inlet conditions. The BSL Reynolds Stress Model was used for all the simulations.
When compared to other published research, the deposition fraction results were slightly
different, but this was potentially due to a number of factors related to the model –
including:
 Geometry
 Flow rate
 Turbulence model.
Further (more detailed) investigation and comparison would be required as part of further
research in order to determine the specific cause of the variations.
Overall, the particle deposition patterns demonstrated that there were more depositions
at certain walls – specifically, if the branching angle was large, the chance of high
deposition was very high.
The release position of deposited particles and exited particles was also investigated. The
study showed that the release position did not vary significantly at different time steps or
with changes in particle size. However, the release position for particles being deposited
would vary with breathing pattern.
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Chapter. 8 Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research
237
8.1 Conclusions
The human lung has been evolving for many thousands of years and, in engineering terms,
its major function has always been gas exchange. During human evolution, however, the
lung has also evolved to adapt its changing environment - for human survival. The blood-
gas barrier has a very large area and is extremely thin, which makes it ideal for rapid
diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide. In addition, the branching airway structure is very
efficient, with little unevenness of ventilation, and a relatively small dead space compared
with the total lung volume. The mucociliary escalator and the alveolar macrophage system
are effective in keeping the lung clean.
The research work presented in this thesis was conducted in order to gain a greater
understanding of particle deposition in the human lung, by using both experimental and
computer simulation. This may lead us to understand why the human lung has evolved in
the way that it has, and how that evolution has helped it to adapt to its environment. The
benefits of this understanding are manifold and include applications related to:
 Understanding particle contaminant and pollutant effects on the human

respiratory system
 Delivery of pharmaceutical products through the respiratory system through

aerosols and other means.
With these points in mind, the key achievements in this research included the following:
(i) Chapter 2 provided the background information and research related to the
human lung and its analysis. This information provided a detailed review of
literature in the field and was required for both experimental and computer
simulation. The morphology of the human lung was presented together with
fluid flow theory and the principle of particle behaviour in human airways.
238
(ii) Chapter 3 documented the experimental results of fluid flow in bifurcation.
The experiments conducted used Laser Doppler Anemometry to measure the
fluid flow of three different Reynolds Numbers (518, 1036, and 2089)
conditions. An initial numerical simulation was conducted using CFX-5.5 with
the correct boundary conditions as the experiment. This validated that the
simulation could match experimental results closely and built confidence in
the numerical simulation analysis using CFX.
(iii) Chapter 4 extends the simulation from Chapter 3 to a four generation

bifurcation flow. The geometry of the model used came from Weibel [15], and
the CAD model was created using Solidworks 2004. The velocity flow profile,
secondary flow, flow distribution and pressure drop behaviour were presented
and compared with other researchers. Insights into fluid flow behaviour were
gained from this exercise. From the velocity flow profile analysis, it was
demonstrated that the profiles become skewed after a fully developed flow
had been divided by the first flow divider (i.e., after first bifurcation). The
skewness of the flow inherits to the children branches.
(iv) From the secondary flow analysis, the results demonstrated that secondary
flows existed in the cross section of the airways. Because the model was
symmetrical, symmetrical vortices could be observed downstream from the
bifurcation.
(v) Due to the geometry, the flow distribution at the outlets was uneven. This
information was used to justify the need to change the boundary conditions of
the subsequent simulation.
(vi) The CFD simulations conducted to this point were using tetrahedral meshing
models. From testing and evaluation, hexahedral elements were preferred,
and could lead to more accurate results.
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(vii) In Chapter 5, in order to validate the particle deposition simulation with CFX-
11, a symmetrical airway model was used to validate the particle tracking
simulation code. Results of the particle deposition were compared to other
researchers. The particle deposition efficiency relating to the Stokes Number
was found to be %  50.231Stk  2.3844
(viii) In Chapter 6, a new CAD airways model was created, based on Horsfield, et al.
[16], using Solidworks 2005. ICEM was then used to mesh the model using
hexahedral elements. The meshing was fine-tuned and a grid independence
test was conducted and fine mesh model was used for the later chapters.
(ix) In Chapter 7, which was the core of this thesis, a full transient inhalation
particle tracking simulation was conducted using the asymmetrical model
generated in Chapter 5. Full transport theory was presented and the
justification of the boundary conditions and turbulence model were given.
From the fluid flow analysis, secondary flow was noticeable as with steady
asymmetrical fluid simulation. Correlation could not be achieved at this stage
because of the number of variables involved in the asymmetrical transient,
with different breathing conditions and particle sizes. However, visual analyses
were presented instead.
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8.2 Recommendations for future research
The research undertaken during this Doctoral program is open-ended and ongoing – it is
one element in a long chain of research and development that has been under way for
many decades.
This specific research endeavoured to address a range of topics related to particle

deposition in the human lung. During the course of this Doctoral work, a number of areas
that require further/ongoing investigation were noted and are listed here:
A fundamental future research goal needs to be the simulation of the full human airways
from mouth or nose; passing external nares, nasopharynx, pharynx, then larynx into
human lung from Trachea down to alveoli level. This basic research is important in
understanding particle deposition in the human lung because the inlet flow conditions at
this stage are unknown without the precursor work. Also, this work would be important
in gaining a holistic picture on the state of the flow, as well as the amount of particles that
are able to pass through the first particle filtering system, the nose. There are also two
ways of human breathing (i.e., nasal and oral). In this thesis, nothing has been mentioned
regarding the type of breathing because the boundary conditions here start from the
trachea. Therefore studying the two ways of breathing would help to establish meaningful
inlet conditions for the trachea. The difficulty in performing such research is that the
geometry of the nasal, nasopharynx and larynx are not well defined in the literature –
therefore, creating a CAD model and producing the mesh for the volume will be an issue.
The second half of the particle deposition analysis that was not covered here was the
suspended particles inside the tidal volume after the inhalation. A simulation is required
for simulating the exhalation of those particles. Again, this is related to the first point
where the lung model deep inside the lung is not defined – the number of particles
remaining suspended in the air inside the tidal volume remains unknown. With
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advancements in computing power, it will be possible to create a whole lung model to
simulate the exhalation of the particles.
With advances in imaging technology, there need to be techniques applied to extract high
resolution images of the human lung from Trachea to the small Alveoli. Journal papers
have already been published on using micro CT on the human lung by Watz, et al. [105].
The results from the simulation can be used as a benchmark for particle deposition. From
an engineering perspective, the problem of using images from CT scan or MRI is that it will
take a very long time to smooth the surfaces before one can be meshed with reasonable
mesh size.
In Chapter 7, a number of different turbulence models were presented. The BSL Reynolds
Stress Model was chosen because of its characteristics. Conversely, there are other
turbulence model that may be more suitable and which were not examined here. For
instance, it may be necessary to create a new transition model as, at times, the fluid flow
of the inhalation cycle is laminar - using a transition model can produce more accurate
simulation results.
Throughout this thesis, the commercial CFD simulation software package used was CFX.
There are numerous other CFD simulation software packages in the market which could
be explored to replicate the work here
Particle deposition will remain a research topic for some decades. Further research and
modelling of the lung and airways could also provide new information on the cause of
lung diseases due to particle deposition. Particle deposition analysis may also ultimately
aid in the design of an artificial human lung.
242
Appendix A
This appendix contains a sample of the CFX output file that contains all the settings and
parameters that was used in the transient particle deposition computation in Chapter 7.
This run of the CFX-11.0 Solver started at 1:31:28 on 14 Dec 2009 by

user Toby on TOBY-WS (intel_xeon64.sse2_winnt) using the command:
"C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v110\CFX\bin\perllib\cfx5solve.pl"

-stdout-comms -batch -ccl -
Installed patches:
* Service Pack 1
*
Setting up CFX Solver run ...
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|
|
| CFX Command Language for Run
|
|
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
LIBRARY:
CEL:
EXPRESSIONS:
AerosolDensity = 350[kg/m^3]
InhaleCycle = 1.154[s]
InletMassFlow = 0.000474[kg/s]
LLArea = 5.02655E-05[m^2]
LUArea = 4.41786E-05[m^2]
ParticleDiameter = 0.000008[m]
TotalParticles = 100000
VolumeOfParticle = 4*pi*((ParticleDiameter/2)^3)/3
ParticleMassFlow = \
VolumeOfParticle*AerosolDensity*TotalParticles/InhaleCycle
RLArea = 3.21699E-05 [m^2]
RMArea = 2.12372E-05 [m^2]
243
RUArea = 4.18539E-05 [m^2]
StepsPerCycle = 40
END
FUNCTION: MassFlowRateAtInlet
Argument Units = s
Option = Interpolation
Result Units = kg/s
INTERPOLATION DATA:
Data Pairs = \
0,0.0000010000,0.055814,0.0003341700,0.111628,0.0006079050,0.167442\
,0.0009112650,0.223256,0.0011067900,0.27907,0.0012383250,0.
334884,0\
.0013177200,0.390698,0.0013793400,0.446512,0.0014326650,0.5
02326,0.\
0014859900,0.55814,0.0015215400,0.613953,0.0015559050,0.669767,0.00\
15831600,0.725581,0.0015831600,0.8,0.0015653850,0.863,0.0015120600,\
0.932,0.0013994850,0.988,0.0012478050,1.05,0.0009645900,1.093,0.000\
5978444,1.154,0.0000010000,1.216,-0.0007027050,1.292,-
0.0013698600,\
1.323,-0.0015215400,1.36,-0.0016092300,1.39535,-
0.0016447800,1.4511\
6,-0.0016815150,1.50698,-0.0016909950,1.56279,-
0.0016732200,1.6186,\
-0.0016424100,1.67442,-0.0016009350,1.73023,-
0.0015298350,1.78605,-\
0.0014409600,1.84186,-0.0013354950,1.89767,-
0.0012288450,1.95349,-0\
.0011233800,2.0093,-0.0009906600,2.06512,-
0.0008401650,2.12093,-0.0\
006991500,2.17674,-0.0005664300,2.23256,-
0.0004194900,2.28837,-0.00\
02784750,2.34419,-0.0001469400,2.4,-
0.0000010000,2.45581,0.00033417\
00,2.51163,0.0006079050,2.56744,0.0009112650,2.62326,0.0011067900,2\
.67907,0.0012383250,2.73488,0.0013177200,2.7907,0.001379340
0,2.8465\
1,0.0014326650,2.90233,0.0014859900,2.95814,0.0015215400,3.01395,0.\
0015559050,3.06977,0.0015831600,3.12558,0.0015831600,3.1814,0.00156\
53850,3.23721,0.0015120600,3.29302,0.0013994850,3.34884,0.001247805\
0,3.40465,0.0009645900,3.46047,0.0005978444,3.51628,0.0000010000,3.\
57209,-0.0007027050,3.62791,-0.0013698600,3.68372,-
0.0015215400,3.7\
244
3953,-0.0016092300,3.79535,-0.0016447800,3.85116,-
0.0016815150,3.90\
698,-0.0016909950,3.96279,-0.0016732200,4.0186,-
0.0016424100,4.0744\
2,-0.0016009350,4.13023,-0.0015298350,4.18605,-
0.0014409600,4.24186\
,-0.0013354950,4.29767,-0.0012288450,4.35349,-
0.0011233800,4.4093,-\
0.0009906600,4.46512,-0.0008401650,4.52093,-
0.0006991500,4.57674,-0\
.0005664300,4.63256,-0.0004194900,4.68837,-
0.0002784750,4.74419,-0.\
0001469400,4.8,-
0.0000010000,4.85581,0.0003341700,4.91163,0.0006079\
050,4.96744,0.0009112650,5.02326,0.0011067900,5.07907,0.0012383250,\
5.13488,0.0013177200,5.1907,0.0013793400,5.24651,0.0014326650,5.302\
33,0.0014859900,5.35814,0.0015215400,5.41395,0.0015559050,5.46977,0\
.0015831600,5.52558,0.0015831600,5.5814,0.0015653850,5.6372
1,0.0015\
120600,5.69302,0.0013994850,5.74884,0.0012478050,5.80465,0.00096459\
00,5.86047,0.0005978444,5.91628,0.0000010000,5.97209,-
0.0007027050,\
6.02791,-0.0013698600,6.08372,-0.0015215400,6.13953,-
0.0016092300,6\
.19535,-0.0016447800,6.25116,-0.0016815150,6.30698,-
0.0016909950,6.\
36279,-0.0016732200,6.4186,-0.0016424100,6.47442,-
0.0016009350,6.53\
023,-0.0015298350,6.58605,-0.0014409600,6.64186,-
0.0013354950,6.697\
67,-0.0012288450,6.75349,-0.0011233800,6.8093,-
0.0009906600,6.86512\
,-0.0008401650,6.92093,-0.0006991500,6.97674,-
0.0005664300,7.03256,\
-0.0004194900,7.08837,-0.0002784750,7.14419,-
0.0001469400,7.2,-0.00\
00010000
Extend Max = No
Extend Min = No
Option = One Dimensional
END
END
END
MATERIAL: Aerosol
Material Group = User
Option = Pure Substance
Thermodynamic State = Solid
PROPERTIES:
245
Option = General Material
EQUATION OF STATE:
Density = AerosolDensity
Molar Mass = 1.0 [kg kmol^-1]
Option = Value
END
END
END
MATERIAL: Air at 25 C
Material Description = Air at 25 C and 1 atm (dry)
Material Group = Air Data, Constant Property Gases
Option = Pure Substance
Thermodynamic State = Gas
PROPERTIES:
Option = General Material
Thermal Expansivity = 0.003356 [K^-1]
ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT:
Absorption Coefficient = 0.01 [m^-1]
Option = Value
END
DYNAMIC VISCOSITY:
Dynamic Viscosity = 1.831E-05 [kg m^-1 s^-1]
Option = Value
END
EQUATION OF STATE:
Density = 1.185 [kg m^-3]
Molar Mass = 28.96 [kg kmol^-1]
Option = Value
END
REFERENCE STATE:
Option = Specified Point
Reference Pressure = 1 [atm]
Reference Specific Enthalpy = 0. [J/kg]
Reference Specific Entropy = 0. [J/kg/K]
Reference Temperature = 25 [C]
END
REFRACTIVE INDEX:
Option = Value
Refractive Index = 1.0 [m m^-1]
END
SCATTERING COEFFICIENT:
Option = Value
Scattering Coefficient = 0.0 [m^-1]
END
SPECIFIC HEAT CAPACITY:
Option = Value
Specific Heat Capacity = 1.0044E+03 [J kg^-1 K^-1]
Specific Heat Type = Constant Pressure
END
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY:
Option = Value
Thermal Conductivity = 2.61E-02 [W m^-1 K^-1]
246
END
END
END
END
FLOW:
SOLUTION UNITS:
Angle Units = [rad]
Length Units = [m]
Mass Units = [kg]
Solid Angle Units = [sr]
Temperature Units = [K]
Time Units = [s]
END
SIMULATION TYPE:
Option = Transient
EXTERNAL SOLVER COUPLING:
Option = None
END
INITIAL TIME:
Option = Automatic with Value
Time = 0 [s]
END
TIME DURATION:
Option = Total Time
Total Time = InhaleCycle
END
TIME STEPS:
Option = Timesteps
Timesteps = InhaleCycle/StepsPerCycle
END
END
DOMAIN: Airways
Coord Frame = Coord 0
Domain Type = Fluid
Fluids List = Air at 25 C
Location = SOLID
Particles List = Aerosol
BOUNDARY: IN
Boundary Type = OPENING
Location = IN
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS:
FLOW DIRECTION:
Option = Normal to Boundary Condition
END
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
Option = Opening Pressure and Direction
Relative Pressure = 0 [Pa]
END
TURBULENCE:
247
Option = Medium Intensity and Eddy Viscosity Ratio
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
Option = Zero Slip Velocity
END
PARTICLE DIAMETER DISTRIBUTION:
Diameter = ParticleDiameter
Option = Specified Diameter
END
PARTICLE MASS FLOW RATE:
Mass Flow Rate = ParticleMassFlow
END
PARTICLE POSITION:
Option = Uniform Injection
Particle Locations = Equally Spaced
NUMBER OF POSITIONS:
Number per Unit Time = TotalParticles/InhaleCycle
Option = Direct Specification
END
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: LL
Boundary Type = OUTLET
Location = LL
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
Mass Flow Rate = 0.25*MassFlowRateAtInlet(t)
Option = Mass Flow Rate
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: LU
Location = LU
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
END
END
END
248
BOUNDARY: RL
Location = RL
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: RM
Location = RM
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: RU
Location = RU
FLOW REGIME:
Option = Subsonic
END
MASS AND MOMENTUM:
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen00
Boundary Type = WALL
Location = GEN00
WALL INFLUENCE ON FLOW:
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
Option = Restitution Coefficient
Parallel Coefficient of Restitution = 0
249
Perpendicular Coefficient of Restitution = 0
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen01
Location = GEN01
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen02
Location = GEN02
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen06
Location = GEN06
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
250
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen10
Location = GEN10
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen11
Location = GEN11
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen13
Location = GEN13
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
251
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen14
Location = GEN14
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
BOUNDARY: WallGen15
Location = GEN15
Option = No Slip
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
VELOCITY:
END
END
END
END
DOMAIN MODELS:
BUOYANCY MODEL:
Option = Non Buoyant
END
DOMAIN MOTION:
Option = Stationary
END
252
MESH DEFORMATION:
Option = None
END
REFERENCE PRESSURE:
Reference Pressure = 1 [atm]
END
END
FLUID MODELS:
COMBUSTION MODEL:
Option = None
END
HEAT TRANSFER MODEL:
Option = None
END
THERMAL RADIATION MODEL:
Option = None
END
TURBULENCE MODEL:
Option = BSL Reynolds Stress
END
TURBULENT WALL FUNCTIONS:
Option = Automatic
END
END
FLUID PAIR: Air at 25 C | Aerosol
Particle Coupling = Fully Coupled
MOMENTUM TRANSFER:
DRAG FORCE:
Option = Schiller Naumann
END
PRESSURE GRADIENT FORCE:
Option = None
END
TURBULENT DISPERSION FORCE:
Option = None
END
VIRTUAL MASS FORCE:
Option = None
END
END
END
FLUID: Aerosol
FLUID MODELS:
MORPHOLOGY:
Option = Dispersed Particle Transport Fluid
END
END
END
FLUID: Air at 25 C
FLUID MODELS:
MORPHOLOGY:
Option = Continuous Fluid
253
END
END
END
END
INITIALISATION:
Option = Automatic
INITIAL CONDITIONS:
Velocity Type = Cartesian
CARTESIAN VELOCITY COMPONENTS:
Option = Automatic
END
EPSILON:
Option = Automatic
END
K:
Option = Automatic
END
STATIC PRESSURE:
Option = Automatic
END
END
END
OUTPUT CONTROL:
PARTICLE TRACK FILE:
Keep Track File = On
Option = All Track Positions
Track Positions = Element Faces
END
RESULTS:
File Compression Level = Default
Option = Standard
END
TRANSIENT RESULTS: Transient Results 1
File Compression Level = Default
Include Mesh = No
Option = Selected Variables
Output Variables List = Courant Number,Pressure,Reynolds \
Stress,Velocity,Wall Shear,Yplus
OUTPUT FREQUENCY:
Option = Time Interval
Time Interval = InhaleCycle/10
END
END
END
SOLVER CONTROL:
ADVECTION SCHEME:
Option = High Resolution
END
CONVERGENCE CONTROL:
Maximum Number of Coefficient Loops = 30
Timescale Control = Coefficient Loops
END
254
CONVERGENCE CRITERIA:
Residual Target = 0.00001
Residual Type = RMS
END
PARTICLE CONTROL:
PARTICLE INTEGRATION:
First Iteration for Particle Calculation = 1
Iteration Frequency = 30
Option = Forward Euler
END
PARTICLE SOURCE SMOOTHING:
Option = Smooth
END
END
TRANSIENT SCHEME:
Option = Second Order Backward Euler
TIMESTEP INITIALISATION:
Option = Automatic
END
END
END
END
COMMAND FILE:
Version = 11.0
Results Version = 11.0
END
EXECUTION CONTROL:
INTERPOLATOR STEP CONTROL:
Runtime Priority = Standard
EXECUTABLE SELECTION:
Double Precision = Off
END
MEMORY CONTROL:
Memory Allocation Factor = 1.0
END
END
PARALLEL HOST LIBRARY:
HOST DEFINITION: tobyws
Remote Host Name = TOBY-WS
Host Architecture String = winnt-amd64
Installation Root = C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\v%v\CFX
END
END
PARTITIONER STEP CONTROL:
Multidomain Option = Independent Partitioning
Use Large Problem Partitioner = Off
END
MEMORY CONTROL:
END
255
PARTITIONING TYPE:
MeTiS Type = k-way
Option = MeTiS
Partition Size Rule = Automatic
Partition Weight Factors = 0.125, 0.125, 0.125, 0.125, 0.125,
0.125, \
0.125, 0.125
END
END
RUN DEFINITION:
Definition File = \
E:/PhD/Simulation/FullModel/FineMesh/Transient/ParticleTrackingNov2009
/\
FineMeshHighResolutionTransientInspiratoryParticleTrackingHeavy.def
Initial Values File = \
E:/PhD/Simulation/FullModel/FineMesh/Transient/ParticleTrackingNov2009
/\
FineMeshHighResolutionSteadyInspiratoryParticleTracking_001.res
Interpolate Initial Values = Off
Run Mode = Full
END
SOLVER STEP CONTROL:
Double Precision = Off
END
MEMORY CONTROL:
END
PARALLEL ENVIRONMENT:
Number of Processes = 8
Start Method = PVM Local Parallel
Parallel Host List = tobyws*8
END
END
END
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Warning!
|
|
|
| Both the Definition File and the Initial Values File contain a
|
| mesh. The mesh in the Definition File will be ignored.
|
256
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|
|
| Partitioning
|
|
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|
|
| ANSYS CFX Partitioner 11.0
|
|
|
| Version 2007.08.08-23.01 Wed Aug 8 23:43:11 GMTDT 2007
|
|
|
| Executable Attributes
|
|
|
| single-int32-64bit-novc6-optimised-supfort-noprof-nospag-lcomp
|
|
|
| Copyright 1996-2007 ANSYS Europe Ltd.
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Job Information
|
257
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Run mode: partitioning run
Host computer: TOBY-WS

Job started: Mon Dec 14 01:31:40 2009
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Memory Allocated for Run (Actual usage may be less)
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Data Type Kwords Words/Node Words/Elem Kbytes Bytes/Node
Real 4608.9 5.34 5.51 18003.6 21.37

Integer 34259.5 39.70 40.97 133826.3 158.82
Character 2501.2 2.90 2.99 2442.6 2.90
Logical 65.0 0.08 0.08 253.9 0.30
Double 1200.5 1.39 1.44 9378.9 11.13
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Mesh Statistics
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Domain Name : Airways
Total Number of Nodes =

862875
Total Number of Elements =

836136
Total Number of Hexahedrons =
836136
Total Number of Faces =

52472
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Partitioning Information
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
258
Partitioning of domain: Airways
- Partitioning tool: MeTiS multilevel weighted k-way algorithm

- Number of partitions: 8
- Number of graph-nodes: 862875
- Number of graph-edges: 5122764
Partitioning information for domain: Airways
+-----------+---------------------+-----------+--------
+
| Elements | Vertices (Overlap) | Faces | Weight
|
+-------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+--------
+
| Full mesh | 836136 | 862875 | 52472 |
|
+-------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+--------
+
| Part. 1 | 105566 | 111996 4.9% | 7278 | 0.125
|
| Part. 2 | 109853 | 116579 5.4% | 6995 | 0.125
|
| Part. 3 | 110993 | 118214 7.5% | 5490 | 0.125
|
| Part. 4 | 108904 | 115125 5.7% | 5813 | 0.125
|
| Part. 5 | 106637 | 114283 8.4% | 5593 | 0.125
|
| Part. 6 | 99701 | 104997 2.8% | 7454 | 0.125
|
| Part. 7 | 108003 | 113264 2.1% | 7951 | 0.125
|
| Part. 8 | 109633 | 115943 4.7% | 7007 | 0.125
|
+-------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+--------
+
| Sum of part.| 859290 | 910401 5.2% | 53581 | 1.000
|
+-------------+-----------+---------------------+-----------+--------
+
CPU-Time requirements:
- Preparations 1.997E+00
seconds
- Low-level mesh partitioning 9.828E-01
seconds
- Global partitioning information 2.028E-01
seconds
- Vertex, element and face partitioning information 4.368E-01
seconds
259
- Element and face set partitioning information 1.560E-01
seconds
- Summed CPU-time for mesh partitioning 6.380E+00
seconds
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Job Information
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+

Job finished: Mon Dec 14 01:31:49 2009
Total CPU time: 8.018E+00 seconds
or: ( 0: 0: 0: 8.018 )
( Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds )
Total wall clock time: 9.000E+00 seconds

or: ( 0: 0: 0: 9.000 )
( Days: Hours: Minutes: Seconds )
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|
|
| Solver
|
|
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
|
|
| ANSYS CFX Solver 11.0
|
|
|
| Version 2007.08.08-23.01 Wed Aug 8 23:43:11 GMTDT 2007
|
|
|
| Executable Attributes
|
260
|
|
| single-int32-64bit-novc6-optimised-supfort-noprof-nospag-lcomp
|
|
|
| Copyright 1996-2007 ANSYS Europe Ltd.
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Job Information
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Run mode: parallel run (PVM)

Par. Process: Master running on mesh partition: 1

Par. Process: Slave running on mesh partition: 2





261
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Memory Allocated for Run (Actual usage may be less)
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Allocated storage in: Kwords

Words/Node
Words/Elem
Kbytes
Bytes/Node
Partition | Real | Integer | Character| Logical | Double

----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
1 | 38035.5 | 9563.2 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 339.61 | 85.39 | 26.35 | 0.58 | 10.79
| 360.30 | 90.59 | 27.96 | 0.62 | 11.44
| 148576.0 | 37356.1 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1358.46 | 341.55 | 26.35 | 0.58 | 86.29
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
2 | 39090.6 | 9858.7 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 335.31 | 84.57 | 25.31 | 0.56 | 10.36
| 355.84 | 89.74 | 26.86 | 0.59 | 11.00
| 152697.7 | 38510.7 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1341.26 | 338.27 | 25.31 | 0.56 | 82.90
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
3 | 39158.7 | 9885.1 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 331.25 | 83.62 | 24.96 | 0.55 | 10.22
| 352.80 | 89.06 | 26.59 | 0.59 | 10.88
| 152963.5 | 38613.8 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1325.01 | 334.48 | 24.96 | 0.55 | 81.75
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
4 | 38599.6 | 9740.4 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 335.28 | 84.61 | 25.63 | 0.56 | 10.49
| 354.44 | 89.44 | 27.10 | 0.60 | 11.09
| 150779.5 | 38048.4 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1341.14 | 338.43 | 25.63 | 0.56 | 83.94
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
5 | 38079.9 | 9577.5 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 333.21 | 83.81 | 25.82 | 0.57 | 10.57
| 357.10 | 89.81 | 27.68 | 0.61 | 11.33
| 148749.5 | 37412.3 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1332.83 | 335.22 | 25.82 | 0.57 | 84.56
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
6 | 36429.6 | 9131.6 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 346.96 | 86.97 | 28.11 | 0.62 | 11.51
262
| 365.39 | 91.59 | 29.60 | 0.65 | 12.12
| 142303.3 | 35670.3 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1387.84 | 347.88 | 28.11 | 0.62 | 92.04
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
7 | 38676.7 | 9753.7 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 341.47 | 86.12 | 26.06 | 0.57 | 10.67
| 358.11 | 90.31 | 27.33 | 0.60 | 11.18
| 151080.8 | 38100.6 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1365.90 | 344.46 | 26.06 | 0.57 | 85.32
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
8 | 39006.9 | 9841.1 | 2951.2 | 65.0 | 1208.0
| 336.43 | 84.88 | 25.45 | 0.56 | 10.42
| 355.80 | 89.76 | 26.92 | 0.59 | 11.02
| 152370.7 | 38441.7 | 2882.0 | 63.5 | 9437.5
| 1345.73 | 339.51 | 25.45 | 0.56 | 83.35
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
Total | 307077.4 | 77351.4 | 23609.5 | 520.0 | 9664.0
| 355.88 | 89.64 | 27.36 | 0.60 | 11.20
| 367.26 | 92.51 | 28.24 | 0.62 | 11.56
| 1199521.1 | 302153.9 | 23056.1 | 507.8 | 75500.0
| 1423.51 | 358.58 | 27.36 | 0.60 | 89.60
----------+------------+------------+----------+----------+----------
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Mesh Statistics
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Total Number of Nodes =

862875
Total Number of Elements =

836136
Total Number of Hexahedrons =
836136
Total Number of Faces =

52472
Minimum Orthogonality Angle [degrees] = 27.7

ok
Maximum Aspect Ratio = 31.9
OK
Maximum Mesh Expansion Factor = 23.1 !
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
263
| Initial Conditions Supplied by Fields in the Input Files
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+

Absolute Pressure
Aerosol.Averaged Volume Fraction
Aerosol.Particle Momentum Source
Aerosol.Particle Momentum Source Coefficient
Courant Number
Pressure
Pressure.Gradient
Shear Strain Rate
Specific Volume
Total Pressure
Velocity
Velocity.Beta
Velocity.Gradient
Volume Porosity
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Average Scale Information
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+

Global Length = 3.2046E-
02
Minimum Extent = 1.5999E-
02
Maximum Extent = 1.4850E-
01
Density =
1.1850E+00
Dynamic Viscosity = 1.8310E-
05
Velocity = 3.3664E-
03
Advection Time =
9.5192E+00
RMS Courant Number =
1.3047E+01
Maximum Courant Number =
1.0068E+02
Reynolds Number =
6.9818E+00
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
264
| ERROR #002100004 has occurred in subroutine Out_Scales_Flu.
|
| Message:
|
| The Reynolds number is outside of the range expected based on the
|
| Option selected for the TURBULENCE MODEL. Check this setting,
|
| the values of the properties, mesh scale, consistency of units
|
| and solution values in the input file. Execution will proceed.
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Writing transient file 48.trn
|
| Name : Transient Results 1
|
| Type : Selected Variables
|
| Option : Time Interval
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| The Equations Solved in This Calculation
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Subsystem : Wall Scale
Wallscale
Subsystem : Momentum and Mass
U-Mom
V-Mom
W-Mom
P-Mass
Subsystem : Reynolds Stress and TurbFreq
uu-RS
vv-RS
ww-RS
uv-RS
uw-RS
265
vw-RS
O-TurbFreq
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Particle Transport Equations Solved in This Calculation
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
Domain Type : Airways

x-Mom-Aerosol
y-Mom-Aerosol
z-Mom-Aerosol
CFD Solver started: Mon Dec 14 01:34:59 2009
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
| Convergence History
|
+--------------------------------------------------------------------
+
======================================================================
| Timestepping Information
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
| Timestep | RMS Courant Number | Max Courant Number
|
+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------
+
| 2.8850E-02 | 13.05 | 100.68
|
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
======================================================================
TIME STEP = 49 SIMULATION TIME = 2.8850E-02 CPU SECONDS =
8.376E+01
(THIS RUN: 1 2.8850E-02
8.376E+01)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
| SOLVING : Wall Scale
|
266
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
| Equation | Rate | RMS Res | Max Res | Linear Solution
|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.00 | 7.7E-04 | 4.2E-03 | 21.5 5.5E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.68 | 5.2E-04 | 1.3E-02 | 21.5 2.1E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.41 | 2.1E-04 | 5.4E-03 | 21.5 2.6E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.53 | 1.1E-04 | 4.4E-03 | 21.5 2.6E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.57 | 6.5E-05 | 2.5E-03 | 21.5 2.5E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.60 | 3.9E-05 | 1.7E-03 | 21.5 2.4E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.63 | 2.4E-05 | 1.2E-03 | 21.5 2.1E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.65 | 1.6E-05 | 8.9E-04 | 21.5 1.9E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.67 | 1.1E-05 | 6.4E-04 | 21.5 1.6E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| Wallscale | 0.68 | 7.2E-06 | 4.6E-04 | 21.5 1.3E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
COEFFICIENT LOOP ITERATION = 1 CPU SECONDS =
3.930E+02
---------------------------------------------------------------------
-
267
| Equation | Rate | RMS Res | Max Res | Linear Solution
|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| U-Mom | 0.00 | 6.0E-04 | 8.4E-03 | 4.0E-02
OK|
| V-Mom | 0.00 | 6.6E-04 | 1.1E-02 | 2.5E-02
OK|
| W-Mom | 0.00 | 2.3E-04 | 8.2E-03 | 1.7E-01
ok|
| P-Mass | 0.00 | 6.9E-05 | 6.1E-03 | 23.3 3.8E-01
ok|
+----------------------+------+---------+---------+------------------
+
| uu-RS | 0.00 | 1.5E-03 | 1.1E-02 | 16.3 7.6E-02
OK|
| vv-RS | 0.00 | 1.8E-03 | 1.9E-02 | 16.3 7.0E-02
OK|
| ww-RS | 0.00 | 8.0E-04 | 1.0E-02 | 11.2 6.5E-02
OK|
| uv-RS | 0.00 | 5.3E-02 | 5.1E+00 | 6.1 7.8E-02
OK|
| uw-RS | 0.00 | 3.1E-02 | 2.9E+00 | 6.1 9.3E-02
OK|
| vw-RS | 0.00 | 4.1E-02 | 2.9E+00 | 6.1 7.8E-02
OK|
| O-TurbFreq | 0.00 | 1.3E-01 | 1.0E+00 | 8.6 1.1E-02
OK|
268
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Toby Lai Thesis

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COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC MODELLING OF PARTICLE DEPOSITION IN HUMAN

A thesis submitted for the degree of

1.1 Background and Objectives ..................................................................................... 2

1.2 Research Significance .............................................................................................. 4

1.3 Perceived Contributions of the Research ................................................................ 6

Chapter. 2 Literature Review ............................................................................................. 9

2.1 Overview of Literature Review Process................................................................. 10

2.2 The Human Respiratory System ............................................................................ 12

2.3 Particle Deposition in the Human Respiratory System ......................................... 21

2.5 Computational Fluid Dynamics and Modelling ..................................................... 38

2.6 Application of CFD to Modelling of Biological Systems ........................................ 53

2.7 Conclusions and Research Directions.................................................................... 58

3.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 61

3.2 Experimental Apparatus ........................................................................................ 62

3.3 Principles of Laser Doppler Anemometers (LDAs) ................................................ 64

3.4 Experimental Set Up .............................................................................................. 66

3.6 Results and Observations ...................................................................................... 78

3.7 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 86

4.2 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 89

4.4 Results and Discussion .......................................................................................... 97

Chapter. 5 Numerical Analysis on Particle Deposition in Symmetrical Human Upper

5.1 Particle Deposition Modelling using CFD ............................................................ 119

5.2 Model Validation ................................................................................................. 121

5.4 Domain and Boundary Conditions ...................................................................... 125

5.5 Results ................................................................................................................. 128

5.6 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Density ........................................................... 131

5.7 Deposition Efficiency vs. Particle Size ................................................................. 135

5.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 142

Chapter. 6 Creation of Asymmetric Airways Model ...................................................... 144

6.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 145

6.3 Geometry Creation using Solidworks .................................................................. 154

6.4 Meshing ............................................................................................................... 162

6.5 Meshing with ANSYS ICEM .................................................................................. 164

6.6 Physical Definition and Boundary Conditions ..................................................... 178

6.8 Results for 5 different mesh configurations ........................................................ 181

6.9 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 187

7.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 189

7.3 Fluid and Particles Properties .............................................................................. 191

7.4 Boundary conditions of the model Airways ........................................................ 192

7.5 Turbulence model ............................................................................................... 197

7.7 Particle deposition Results .................................................................................. 214

7.8 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 236

Chapter. 8 Conclusions and Recommendations for Further Research .......................... 237

8.1 Conclusions .......................................................................................................... 238

Appendix A ......................................................................................................................... 243

Figure 2-6 Mass flows in and out of fluid element. ............................................................. 44

Figure 2-7 Stress components on three faces of fluid element ........................................... 47

Figure 3-1 Laser Doppler Anemometry at Swinburne University of Technology ................ 63

Figure 3-3 LDA system setup ................................................................................................ 66

Figure 3-4 Measurement Volume ........................................................................................ 67

Figure 3-6 Actual equipment setup at Swinburne Fluid Lab ................................................ 69

Figure 3-7 Glass bifurcation model ...................................................................................... 70

Figure 3-10 Mesh of the bifurcation geometry ................................................................... 74

Figure 3-12 Boundary conditions for the bifurcation model ............................................... 77

Figure 3-15 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 1036 ...................................... 83

Figure 3-16 Velocity for Station 1 to 4 at Reynolds number 2089 ...................................... 85

Figure 5-1 Validation of Current model ............................................................................. 124

Figure 5-4 Tracks for particles deposited at Generation 1 ................................................ 130

Figure 5-5 Re = 500, Particle size = 3 micron ..................................................................... 132

Figure 5-6 Re = 500, Particle size = 9 micron ..................................................................... 133

Figure 5-8 Re = 2000, Particle size = 3 micron ................................................................... 133

Figure 5-9 Re = 2000, Particle size = 9 micron ................................................................... 134

Figure 5-10 Re = 2000, Particle size = 15 micron ............................................................... 134

Figure 5-12 Re = 500 Particle Density = 1000 kg/m3 ....................................................... 136