Modeling and simulation of human upper airway

Abstract

Snoring might indicate the first stage of the Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) syndrome, and has received much attention in recent years. Previous studies on snoring have shown that upper airway narrowing, collapse, and resistance are predisposing factors for snoring and OSA. However, further research work is needed to understand the mechanisms of snoring. Although there have been many CFD studies modeling nasal turbulence, the larynx and vocal folds, most are limited to lumped one- or two- dimensional cases, or three-dimensional problems with over-simplified physics, e.g. rigid rather than flexible walls. In this study, we address the impact of fluid-structure interactions by using a three-dimensional numerical simulation of an experimental upper airway model, which is constructed to mimic the interaction of the deformation of the soft palate and adjacent tissues with a pressurized airflow (breathing) during sleep. The model consists of a deformable structure domain and its associated airflow domain. The results of the numerical simulation are compared with the experimental data. In addition, Interesting flow fields and pressure distributions are revealed. The fluid structure interaction model can be developed further to study the more realistic human upper airway problems. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.