Nasal valve angle or nasal valve groove:Which is more suitable to describe a normal anatomic structure?

The size of the nasal valve angle is often used to assess nasal ventilation.A larger angle of the nasal valve is believed to be more conducive for ventilation,and a small angle is considered unfavorable.However,in more than 30 years of clinical practice,we have experienced that some patients with a normal nasal valve angle have relatively severe subjective or objective nasal ventilation obstruction.By studying the computed tomography data of these patients,we found that the tips of their nasal valves were at a sharp angle,while those of healthy individuals were in an arc shape.A sharp angle at the tip of the nasal valve,therefore,is a risk factor for obstructed nasal ventilation.Herein,we propose that the term“nasal valve groove”may be a more appropriate descriptor for the normal internal nasal valve anatomy,and we hope that more rhinoplasty surgeons will pay attention to how the shape of the tip affects nasal ventilation.

Experimental Study and 3D CFD Analysis on the Optimization of Throttle Angle for a Convergent Vortex Tube

Seven adjustments of convergent-type Vortex Tube （VT） with different throttle angles were applied. The adjustments were made to analyze the influences of such angles on cold and hot temperature drops as well as flow structures inside the VTs. An experimental setup was designed, and tests were performed on different convergent VT configurations at injection pressures ranging from 0.45 to 0.65 MPa. The angles of the throttle valve were arranged between 30° to 90°, and the numbers of injection nozzles ranged between 2 and 6. Laboratory results indicated that the maximum hot and cold temperature drops ranged from 23.24 to 35 K and from 22.87 to 32.88 K, respectively, at four injection nozzles. Results also showed that temperature drop is a function of hot throttle valve angle with the maximum hot and cold temperature drops depending on the angle applied. We used graphs to demonstrate the changes in the cold and hot temperature drops with respect to hot throttle angle values. These values were interpreted and evaluated to determine the optimum angle, which was 60°. The CFD outputs agreed very well with the laboratory results. The proposed CFD results can help future researchers gain good insights into the complicated separation process taking place inside the VTs.

Estimation of Residual Exhaust Gas of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Gasoline Engine Operating Under Negative Valve Overlap Strategy

To meet the requirements of the homogeneous charge compression ignition gasoline engine’s rapid cylinder exhaust gas rate and accurate control of combustion phasing,a residual exhaust gas rate model was proposed.A heat dissipation model for gas flow in the exhaust passage and exhaust pipe was established,and the exhaust gas was established.Flow through the exhaust valve was considered as an adiabatic expansion process,the exhaust temperature was used to estimate the temperature in the cylinder at the time that the valve was closed,and the cylinder exhaust gas rate was calculated.To meet the requirements of transient operating conditions,a first-order inertial link was used to correct the thermocouple temperature measurement.Addressing this delay problem and modification of the exhaust wall temperature according to different conditions effectively improved the accuracy of the model.The relative error between the calculated results of this model and the simulation results determined using GT-POWER software was within 3.5%.