MEASUREMENT OF AIRFLOW IN TRACHEA USING PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY AND LASER-DOPPLER ANEMOMETRY

Abstract eng:
A lot of attention has been given to the study of airflow in human respiratory airways recently, because airflow characteristics greatly influence transport and deposition of the particles in human lungs. In this paper the aerodynamics occurring in upper part of human trachea is investigated. Laser optical measurements were performed in a semirealistic model of the upper airways, from mouth to 4th generation of branching. The model was attached downstream to a generator of oscillating flow, which was set to sinusoidal flow for resting conditions with mean Reynolds number Re = 1414. Flow characteristics were measured using laser optical methods, in particular Particle Image Velocimetry and Laser-Doppler Anemometry. We found that the flow in trachea was biased to the front wall due to the laryngeal jet. The flow became turbulent during high velocity phases of the sinusoidal flow and generated turbulence intensity was observed up to 20 %. These data can help to understand the complicated flow in trachea and its implications in particle deposition studies.

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