3D Modeling and Simulation of Airflow and Aerosol Deposition of Idealized Human Oral Airways

This study is designed to investigate how simple could the idealized Upper Respiratory Tract (URT) model get by modelling three different idealized URT models, differ in their simplicity and simulating the air flow in each and comparing the results. The three models that were modelled in this study included a URT model without tracheobronchial (TB) airways, a URT model with symmetric TB airways and a URT model with asymmetric TB airways. To simplify the URT and model it on a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, the idealized human oral airway and the TB airway model that was done by J. Huang, et al., Modeling micro-particle deposition in human upper respiratory tract under steady inhalation. Particuology 9, 39 (2011) was adopted. The three URT models were sketched and extruded using Solid-Works 2011. ANSYS Workbench 11.11 version was used to carry out the simulations, with airflow rate of 30 L/min. The airflow results of the three models were compared for velocity, velocity distribution and streamlines recirculation zones. Different flow rates and water particle diameters were simulated. It was found that the deposition increases with the increasing of the flow rate and the particle diameter which agree with other experimental and numerical studies on the particle deposition in the human URT.