The analysis of pneumatic atomization of Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids for different medical nebulizers

Abstract

Objective: The article contains results of the experimental studies on atomization process of inhaled drugs and aqueous solutions of glycerol with aqueous solutions of glycerol polyacrylamide (Rokrysol WF1) in pneumatic nebulizers. In experiments, the different concentration of aqueous solutions of glycerol polyacrylamide have been tested. In addition, the effect of nebulizer design on atomization process has been determined. The one of the main elements of medical pneumatic nebulizer is nebulizer cup.

Significance: The experiment with this scope is new and is very important from the point of view of aerosol therapy.

Methods: The results have been obtained by the use of the digital microphotography technique. In order to determine a physicochemical properties of tested liquids, a rheological measurements and measurements of the surface tension were carried out.

Results: The differences between characteristics of aerosol for the liquids have been observed. The analysis of the droplets size distributions shows that the different diameters of droplets for Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids have been formed during atomization in pneumatic nebulizers equipped with different nebulizer cups. The effect of the mouthpiece location on the droplets diameters has been shown.

Conclusions: Precise design of nebulizer and nebulizer cups, and also physicochemical properties of atomized liquids are of high importance in order to the effectiveness of drug delivery to patient’s respiratory tracts.

Keywords:

• Atomization
• pneumatic nebulizer
• shear and extensional viscosity
• surface tension
• droplet size histogram
• mean droplet diameter

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Ministry of Education and Science of Poland through grant PUT 03/32/DSPB/0702.