Fluid-structure interaction analysis of airflow in the lung alveolus

TL;DR

This study models airflow in lung alveoli using fluid-structure interaction with various tissue mechanics, highlighting the importance of viscoelastic properties for accurate simulation of alveolar deformation during breathing.

Contribution

It introduces a 3D alveolar model with different tissue material models, demonstrating the superiority of viscoelastic modeling over elastic models for alveolar tissue behavior.

Findings

Viscoelastic models better represent alveolar tissue deformation.

Elastic models are insufficient for accurate alveolar behavior.

Simulation results inform better aerosol drug delivery design.

Abstract

The flow simulation in alveolar region is imperative in understanding transport of particles and designing aerosol drug delivery systems. Air flow is dependent on alveolar geometry and ventilation conditions. In this work a three dimensional honey-comb like geometry is constructed. A fluid-structure analysis is performed to study normal breathing airflow. Mechanical properties of alveolar wall tissue play an important role in the deformation of alveoli. We have used three distinct material models, linear, non-linear isotropic elastic and viscoelastic, in order to simulate the mechanical behavior of alveolar wall tissue and air flow simulation in it. Our simulation shows that linear and non-linear elastic models cannot describe alveolar tissue behavior as well as viscoelastic.