An image-based computational model of oscillatory flow in the proximal part of tracheobronchial trees

Abstract

A computational model of an oscillatory laminar flow of an incompressible Newtonian fluid has been carried out in the proximal part of human tracheobronchial trees, either normal or with a strongly stenosed right main bronchus. After acquisition with a multislice spiral CT, the thoracic images are processed to reconstruct the geometry of the trachea and the first six bronchus generations and to virtually travel inside this duct network. The facetisation associated with the 3D reconstruction of the tracheobronchial tree is improved to get a computation-adapted surface triangulation, which leads to a volumic mesh composed of tetrahedra. The Navier–Stokes equations associated with the classical boundary conditions and different values of the flow dimensionless parameters are solved using the finite element method. The airways are supposed to be rigid during rest breathing. The flow distribution among the set of bronchi is determined during the respiratory cycle. Cycle reproducibility and mesh size effects on the numerical results are examined. Helpful qualitative data are provided rather than accurate quantitative results in the context of multimodelling, from image processing to numerical simulations.

Keywords:

• Computed tomography
• Flow distribution
• Oscillatory flow
• Tracheobronchial tree
• 3D reconstruction

Acknowledgements

Support for this work was provided by the french ministry of research in the framework of project “R-MOD” of the Réseau National Technologies pour la Santé RNTS 2001, in association with Air Liquide company in particular. The authors thank P. Grenier who provided the CT images, L. Baffico and P. Métier for the earlier set of computations using an image-based domain with some bronchi reconstructed frontside back, and R. Fodil who helped in discretizing the reconstructed surface, using AMIRA software.

Notes

§Present address: Laboratoire MAPMO, Université d'Orléans, BP 6759, 45067 Orléans Cedex 2.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. Mancini

§ §Present address: Laboratoire MAPMO, Université d'Orléans, BP 6759, 45067 Orléans Cedex 2.