A311 Experimental Investigation of Oscillatory Flow in a Model of Human Terminal Airway Bifurcation

Abstract

This paper presents the ensemble averaged oscillatory flow field in a model of human terminal airway bifurcation. Because of difficulties of in vivo experimental investigations of respiratory flows, in vitro experiments in model have been performed. The size of the model investigated was the same order with the basic anatomical features of the human terminal airway bifurcation (terminal airway, Generation 18th-19th). In the present work, micro-PIV technique has been applied to measurements of velocity profiles at each phase of oscillatory flow in the model. The oscillatory flow conditions in the experiments are as follows; physiological tidal volume was 1-2Oμl and breathing frequencies were 0.2, 0.8 and 20Hz corresponding to respiratory conditions of normal state, case of maximum exercise, and HFOV (High Frequency Oscillatory Ventilation) artificial mode, respectively.