Numerical Simulation of Dusty Air Flow and Particle Deposition Inside Permeable Alveolar Duct

Abstract

There were huge inconsistencies in deposition between ducts of a particular generation and inside every alveolated duct, signifying that limited particle concentration can be much bigger than the mean acinar concentration. A large number of particles are unsuccessful to way out during expiration. Therefore, to study the effect of inhaled particles of nano size inside alveolar region of human lung we used Navier–Stokes equation by including Darcy term together with Newton equation of motion. Finite difference technique has been used to solve the governing equation, which assumed to take axial symmetry under laminar pulsatile flow condition, so that the problem efficiently becomes two dimensional. Computational work is done on MATLAB R2016 by user defined code and effect of porosity, Darcy number and Reynolds number are analysed to study the flow condition inside alveolar region. Results show that porosity is an active factor for deposition of nanoparticles and the fraction of particles trapped in the alveolus increases by decreasing the Darcy number. © 2019, Springer Nature India Private Limited.