Numerical Simulation of Particle Motions in Cascade Impactor and Human Respiratory System

Abstract

Dry powder inhalations (DPIs) have gathered attention as a treatment for respiratory diseases due to the large effective absorption area in a human lung. A cascade impactor is generally used to investigate the inhalation performance of DPIs. For the improvement of the efficiency of DPIs, understanding the particle motion and deposition behavior in the human lung and the cascade impactor is required. In the present study, computer simulations were conducted to calculate the particle motion and deposition behavior in the human lung and the cascade impactor. As simulation methods, a coupling model of a computational fluid dynamics and a discrete phase method (CFD−DPM) and a coupling model of a CFD and a discrete element method (CFD−DEM) were used. The CFD−DEM simulation could reproduce the experimental particle deposition behavior in the cascade impactor, although it was difficult by the CFD−DPM simulation. Furthermore, the calculation results using the CFD−DEM simulation quantitatively demonstrated the higher particle reachability into the simple lung model when smaller particles were used. It was found that the CFD−DEM simulation is a powerful tool to calculate the particle motion and deposition behavior in the cascade impactor and human lung.