A detailed look at deposition in a human airway bifurcation

What is it about?

We use direct numerical simulations to study the deposition of particles carried by turbulent fluid flow on the walls of a bifurcating pipe. By "Direct Numerical Simulations" we mean that we are using no modeling, we are solving the discretized version of the exact governing equations. At sufficiently high speeds the flow becomes "turbulent" in that it starts to move in a seemingly erratic pattern (think of the smoke rising of a cigar: near the cigar it seems to be moving in straight lines, but as it rises further up it starts to zic-zac around).

Featured Image

Why is it important?

A pipe bifurcation is a building block geometry for many biomedical and technological applications. For example, a pipe bifurcation is a common geometrical feature of the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. It is also frequently encountered in large pipe systems used for the transfer of oil, sewage etc. Surprisingly, fully turbulent flow in bifurcating pipe had not been studied before via direct numerical simulation. This gap in the literature is filled by this publication, where we report in great detail the characteristics of the turbulent flow field and the particle deposition patterns on the walls of the pipe. We use an innovative technique to visualize the eddies of the turbulent flow and explain how these affect the deposition of particles at different locations neat the bifurcation.

Perspectives