Parametrización de un modelo 3D del pulmón para estudios de dinámica de fluidos computacional

Abstract

The morphology of the human lung consists of a series of dichotomous bifurcations that result in a complex branching network. Several idealized descriptions of this morphology have been proposed in the technical literature in order to generate relative simple geometries than can be used to resolve the flow with a proper CFD code. However, the simulation of the entire lung excluding the alveolar region is still beyond the actual computational capacities. A 3D numerical model of the bronchial tree has been developed, from the trachea to the seventh level bronchioles, following the model developed by Weibel and Kitaoka. The main innovation is the parametric geometry applied to the model. The main objective of the investigation is to develop a simplified morphology of the lung that can allow resolving the flow at all scales simultaneously while avoiding prohibitive mesh sizes and computational times. The methodology is based on the simulation of only one of the two possible branches in each bronchiole.