人体呼吸道的二级及三级支气管内吸气流动的数值研究

Numerical Study on Inspiratory Flows in Two and Three Generation Bronchi of Human Lung Airways

呼吸系统的主要生理机能是在大气和血液之间交换氧气和二氧化碳,其生理过程与呼吸道内的气体流动和输送有密切关系。本文利用数值模拟方法对呼吸道内二级及三级支气管模型内的吸气过程进行数值研究,研究表明:二级支气管的计算结果与现有的实验值吻合很好;在三级支气管内,当人体处于正常吸气流量下,支气管内未发生任何分离现象,但流道几何形状的弯曲和分岔使支气管内出现强烈的二次流现象,主流速度出现倾斜分布及m-型分布特征,从而加大了分岔管内侧壁面及前后侧壁面上的切应力;在三级支气管的末级管内,流量分流不均匀,在计算条件下,中部支气管内的流量与侧部支气管内的流量之比为1.2。

The main physiological function of respiratory system is exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between atmosphere and blood. Its physiological process is closely related with air flow and transport in respiratory airway. This paper studies numerically the inspiratory flows in a two generation and a three generation bronchial airway. The numerical results of the two generation bronchi show that the present computations fit the available experiments very well. For three generation bronchi, no separation appears within the whole airway under normal breathing rate, which is contrary to the occurrence of separation at even low Reynolds number by the previous two dimensional models. Strong secondary flow phenomenon, skew and m-shaped main flow velocity profiles are found in the airways due to geometrical curvature and bifurcation. These increase shear stress acting on the inner wall as well as on the anterior and posterior wall in the bifurcating airways. In the end bronchi of the three generation airway, the mass flow rates in medial and lateral bronchi are unequal, and the mass flow ratio between the medial and the lateral bronchi is 1.2 at the flow conditions considered.