Nanoparticle transport in a realistic model of the tracheobronchial region

The transport and deposition of nanoparticles in the human lung has important health consequences for both hazardous and non-hazardous reasons. Example scenarios are inhalation of toxic pollutants from the surrounding environment and novel targeted drug delivery to the lung epithelial surface. In this paper we develop a method to simulate the time dependent transport of nanoparticles in CT based models of the human tracheobronchial region. We consider the transport in a seven generation model based on an Euler-Euler approach for particles ranging from 1.5nm to 11nm, ie. in a range considered important for the tracheobronchial region. The results indicate that the deposition of smaller particles are affected more by the non-uniformity of the realistic geometry. In particular we observe spatial variations in wall deposition directly resulting from the complex air flow patterns. Time dependent effects tend to be less significant compared with the geometric effects.     «

The transport and deposition of nanoparticles in the human lung has important health consequences for both hazardous and non-hazardous reasons. Example scenarios are inhalation of toxic pollutants from the surrounding environment and novel targeted drug delivery to the lung epithelial surface. In this paper we develop a method to simulate the time dependent transport of nanoparticles in CT based models of the human tracheobronchial region. We consider the transport in a seven generation model ba...     »