Forced Alveolar Flows and Mixing in the Lung

Abstract

The air flows deep inside the lung are not only important in gas exchange processes but they also determine the efficiency of particle deposition and retention. The study aims at quantifying the relative influence of different flow components in the transport of small particles in alveolar geometries such as convective breathing patterns, wall movement, gravitational settling and Brownian motion. In addition, the possibility and efficiency of external forcing is studied, relying on the mechanism of internal acoustic streaming. A viscous oscillating boundary layer flow is converted into a steady, viscosity‐independent bulk motion which is very efficient at low Reynolds numbers. The streaming can be controlled by external parameters (excitation amplitude, frequency, beam shape) and may thus be of diagnostic and therapeutic relevance. Numerical simulations are performed to analyze the flow patterns in 3D model geometries and to measure deposition rates. (© 2009 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)