830 Mass Transport Enhancement by Unidirectional Flow in Avian Respiration
Details
Flow patterns and axial gas transport in avian lungs were investigated numerically in oscillatory flow through an avian lung-like bifurcating tube with four T-bifurcations. Flow condition was selected to match avian respiration. Magnitude of unidirectional net flow and gas transport efficiency, which was defined as a volume ratio of fresh gas expired from the outlet of a daughter tube to that inspired from the inlet of a mother tube, were compared with those in single T-bifurcating tube in previous study. The result showed that the magnitude of unidirectional net flow was enhanced about 1.8 times, and the gas transport efficiency was about 1.2 times as large as that in single T-bifurcating tube. At the inlet of the mother tube, smaller pressure amplitude was observed in the present case than in the single T-bifurcating tube case. These findings indicated that multi-bifurcation structure of the avian trachea played an important role in the generation of unidirectional flow and enhancement of axial gas transport.
