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Pressure contours of air flow in the human lung - model prediction

Multiscale Simulation of Gas Flow Distribution in the Human Lung

Contents

• Contact Information
• Funding Agency 
• Research Emphasis 
• Disease Focus 
• Scales Examined 
• Biomedical, Biological &  Behavioral Areas
• Modeling Methods & Tools  
• Software Development 

Contact Information

Principal Investigator/Contact
Ching-Long Lin
University of Iowa
Phone: (319) 335-5673
Fax: (319) 335-5669
E-mail: ching-long-lin@uiowa.edu
Project Websites: http://www.engineering.uiowa.edu/~ching/digital_lung.htm

Co-PIs and Collaborators 
Eric A. Hoffman
Geoffrey McLennan
Merryn H. Tawhai

Grant Number - 1-R01-EB-005823-01

Funding Agency

National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIH-NIBIB)

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Research Emphasis

The ultimate goal of the project is to develop a comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model for pulmonary air flow that utilizes subject-specific airway geometries, spans spatial scales from the largest bronchial airways to alveolar sac, and employs a Computed Tomography (CT) data-driven, multistage approach to provide accurate predictions of regional ventilation and gas transport through the entire moving airway tree.

The approach integrates three-dimensional (3D) and one-dimensional (1D) fluid dynamic models supplemented with dynamic CT data through numerical optimization to achieve realistic multi-scale breathing lung simulations.

The model will bring about new understanding of air flow, gas transport, and aerosol particle deposition in the lungs.

The applications of the model include, but are not limited to, the following:
a) Improving pharmaceutical aerosol drug delivery
b) Predicting subject-specific regional ventilation for diagnosis of patterns related to pathologic changes in airway geometry and parenchyma destruction
c) Predicting long-term effects of environmental pollutants on lung function where environmental exposure has been shown to alter airway structure in early development.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the science that deals with the calculation of different flow parameters in a fluid continuum, with the help of a computer.
Computed tomography (CT) is a diagnostic imaging method in which x-ray measurements from many angles are combined in an image. 
 
Abstract

Disease Focus

Lung-related diseases

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Scales Examined 

Time Scales

• Microsecond (μs)
• Millisecond (ms)
• Second(s)
• Minutes

Biological Scales

• Tissue
• Organ
• Organ Systems

Length Scales 

• Micrometer (μm)
• Millimeter (mm)
• Centimeter (cm)
• Ten centimeter

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Biomedical, Biological and Behavioral (BBB) Areas and Percent Focus

50% - Lung – air flow and gas transport from mouth to trachea to smallest airway, experiment for taking gas washin/washout time constants.

Modeling Methods and Tools (MMT)Areas and Percent Focus

50% -Finite Element Methods – macro-scale airflow, super cluster high performance computing, coupling 3D FEM model with 1D gas transport model, coupling to provide boundary conditions to estimate higher generations of conducting airways (16 total generations), currently up to 3D 11 generations of airways. The breathing lung model will be achieved by numerical optimization of dynamic CT imaging 4D data.  

Software Development