55 2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium

BIOLOGICAL
FLOWS
For about 20 years, the VKI has been active
in the study of biological flows. The first
subject of research was the investigation of
methods to identify and measure cardiac
valve leaks. This was done with in-vitro
measurements using LDV and medical
Ultrasonic Doppler anemometers. The
second domain of investigation in which
the VKI is still working is the investigation
of airflows and aerosols in lung passages.
Some studies have also been carried out in
the field of Cystic Fibrosis.
BIOLOGICAL FLUID DYNAMICS
Biological problems such as respiration and possible
particle deposition in the lung, blood flow in the cir-
culatory system, and flow in the kidney, represent ap-
plications of fluid mechanics to the understanding of
the human body.
In groups at risk (e.g. children), the incidence of res-
piratory diseases such as bronchiole inflammation and
asthma tends to increase. These diseases are directly
linked to air pollution and to the deposition of partic-
ulate pollutants in the lungs. To prevent or treat these
diseases, most therapies use drugs, which are deliv-
ered into the lungs in the form of an aerosol. Aerosol
particles are increasingly recognized either as possi-
ble health risks in the environment or as diagnostic
and therapeutic tools in medical research. Particularly,
small particles, that reach the gas-exchange surfaces
of the alveolar region of the lung, are considered as
potential health risks. The use of inhalers for example
has become a common method of drug delivery.
Besides serving as a means of systematic treatment,
aerosols can also be used in the diagnosis, prevention
or control of lung diseases. Pulmonary drug delivery
has the advantage that it can deliver drugs directly to
the region of therapeutic treatment, hence requiring
lower medicine doses. Due to the poor spatial target-
ing, the therapies aiming at delivering aerosolized
drugs directly to the region of interest suffer however
from a lower efficiency and possible side effects. Thus
the knowledge of spatial targeting requires the knowl-
edge of the nature of the aerosol being delivered and
its behavior in the lung. Studies related to aerosol dep-
osition in the alveolar pulmonary airways have been
mostly restricted to numerical studies, which require
further experimental validation.
Few experimental studies have been performed ex-
tracting quantitative data due to the involved com-
plexity accompanying the extremely low Reynolds-
numbers (in the order of 0.01) encountered in the
lower lung airways.
56
Biological Flows
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Figure 1: Lung cast
Figure 2: 3D silicone model of multiple lung
bifurcation used for unsteady flow
characterisation
Figure 3: Velocity field at the end of the inspira-
tion cycle measure by PIV (Re = 1000)
The lung is a complex network of successive bifurca-
tions as seen on Figure 1. The airways, from the trachea
to the alveolar zone, divide by dichotomy and become
shorter and narrower as they penetrate deeper into the
lung. The most widely used morphological model has
been established by Weibel. The higher the generation
number, the deeper down inside the lung the particu-
lar region can be found. The higher generation num-
bers, i.e. larger than 17, represent the alveolar region
in which gas exchange and flow velocities in the order
of 1cm/s are encountered. As a result, in vivo investi-
gations of pulmonary flows are not possible, and in
vitro experiments in models have to be performed.
Successive models have been progressively imple-
mented at the VKI, to finally perform a complete de-
scription of unsteady flow in a tree generation 3D
model by experimental and numerical modelling
(Figure 2 and 3). As a result of these studies, it has
been shown that the first bifurcation influences the
flow in the second and in the third bifurcation when
the length of the second one is not sufficiently long
[MP77,MP42,MP52,MP94].
Concerning aerosol deposition, an extensive literature
can be found on the numerical simulation of the bi-
furcations under Stokes conditions. Several research
groups have developed realistic two- and three-di-
mensional computer models of the alveolar region
based on Weibels morphological data (University of
California - San Diego). They showed that the discrep-
ancy in aerosol deposition per airway generation be-
tween a rhythmically moving alveolar model and that
found in the classical rigid wall model explains the dis-
crepancy. Since little work has been done however to
experimentally validate calculated particle trajectories
in the pulmonary acinus due to the required com-
plexity of the setup, the experimental know how de-
veloped at the VKI has been applied to model aerosol
behaviour within bifurcations.
At this stage of our experimental aerosol study, the
three-dimensional model represented an alveolated
bend, which can be seen as a half bifurcation (Fig. 4).
The model consisted of two alveolated ducts con-
nected by a non-alveolated bend. Each duct consisted
of a cylindrical lumen surrounded by an annulus di-
vided into three alveoli. In total the model featured six
toroidal alveoli and a transitional zone. The two ducts
were connected at an angle of 35, which is half the
branching angle between two bifurcating airways. The
dimensions were roughly scaled up by a factor of 50
to allow in-vitro measurements. As the injected
aerosols had to be traced, the model needed to be op-
tically accessible. For this reason a mixture of silicone
was used as building material as already developed
in the previous bifurcation model [MP154].
Measurements (Figure 5) of both fluid velocity and
aerosol trajectories have been conducted in this
curved pipe representing the alveolar structures in the
21
st
generation using the Weibel model. It turned out
to be impossible to model simultaneously Reynolds,
gravitational and inertial similarity for the aerosol par-
ticles. As one of the main objectives was to act as a
benchmark test for numerical codes rather than to ac-
curately simulate the conditions encountered in the
alveoli, iron particles of 1.2mm in diameter were cho-
sen, representing aerosols with in-vivo diameters of
12.8m. Silicone oil served as the carrier fluid allow-
ing flow rates of 0.84ml/s corresponding to Reynolds
numbers of 0.07. Using iron particles of 20m as trac-
ers, PIV experiments were conducted to extract the
steady flow velocity distributions. After background
subtraction the images were processed with an algo-
rithm, which combines the advantages of multigrid
window distortion during the iterative interrogation
process and ensemble averaging of correlations. As
such the negative influences of poor image quality and
low seeding could be lessened. Results of streamline
patterns can be seen in Figure 5 (left).
A time-resolved tracking algorithm was developed to
extract the particle positions from the digitally record-
ed images. A curvilinear separation streamline at the
alveolar openings characterized the flow field and in-
dicated little convective change with the lumen flow.
Tubular vortices were found in the corners of the
57
Biological Flows
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Figure 4: Sketch of the experimental setup
outer radius of the bend which then merged
into a larger vortex when reaching the inner ra-
dius. The velocity inside the alveoli was about
two orders of magnitude smaller compared to
the mean lumen velocity. Through the ad-
vanced interrogation methodology, allowing
correlation windows of 20x20 pixels, even
slow rotating fluid elements located at the cen-
ter of each cavity could be properly identified.
None of the injected aerosols were able to fol-
low the tube geometry perfectly. All aerosol
trajectories showed a curvilinear behavior in-
dicating gravity as the dominating deposition
mechanism (see Figure 5, right). The Stokes
number along the particle trajectories was in
the order of 10
-4
proving viscous forces over-
ruled the inertial forces.
58
Biological Flows
2006, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Rhode-St-Gense, Belgium
Figure 5: Streamline pattern in the tube at
Re = 0.069 (left) and comparison between
trajectories of iron particles of 1.2mm (solid)
and streamlines (dashed) (right)