Lung sound generation and propagation in the airway: Understanding from the aeroacoustics

Abstract

Auscultation is the most effective and simple method to detect abnormality of the lung respiration invasively. Recently attempts have been made to innovate the quantitative measurements and frequency analyses of the lung sound for the diagnosis. However, the physical mechanisms of the sound generation and its propagation in the lung are still uncovered. In this report, we introduce our recent engineering studies on the aeroacoustics of bronchial sounds and show some results obtained by the experiments using both the simplified and the realistic models of branching airway and the computational analyses of sound propagation through the airway wall.