Richard Ross Gruetzemacher

Numerical Simulation of Airflow in a CT-based Human Airway Model With Physiologically Appropriate Boundary Conditions

A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science in Computational Engineering Degree, The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Richard Ross Gruetzemacher, August 2014

Abstract:
Chronic respiratory illness afflicts more than a billion people worldwide. In recent years computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been established as a paramount tool for studying treatments of respiratory illnesses. This work investigates physiologically appropriate, lobar-specific boundary conditions for numerical simulation of steady and unsteady flow through a computed tomography (CT) based pulmonary airway geometry. Particle transport is modeled in steady and unsteady flow. Analysis is conducted on flow phenomena and particle transport in both steady and inspiratory flow.

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