Pressure loss for bifurcation geometry of the human lung airway

Abstract

Pressure loss characteristics for a bifurcating tube in the human lung airways were numerically investigated. Effect of the branching angle on the pressure loss was examined in addition to those of the flow velocity and geometry in a quantitative manner. Results were formulated into a formula for the pressure coefficient K in terms of Reynolds number, length/diameter and the branch angle, valid for a bifurcation tube in 100 ≤ Re1 ≤ 1000 and L1 ≤ 10d1.