Knowledge Bank

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is a type of respiratory failure in which edema fluid fills the airways and prevents proper oxygen exchange in the alveolus [1][2]. Aerosolized particle delivery could be used in conjunction with mechanical ventilation to open the lungs and treat ARDS, but this approach is either harmful to the patient or ineffective if the combination of particle delivery and mechanical ventilation is not balanced properly [4][5]. Thus, there is a need for a computational model that can predict the success rate of particle delivery given a certain amount of mechanical ventilation performed and volume of edema fluid present in the lungs. COMSOL Multiphysics software was used in conjunction with MATLAB to create the computational models necessary for this study. Computational models were built using the porous media flow (PMF) module to simulate the sponge-like characteristics of the lung tissue in the presence of edema fluid [6]. Validation of the model, performed in incremental steps, required the comparison of the results to published literature, other validated models, or expected results. 1D-airway geometries were generated by scanning a 1D model obtained from Avatree and fluid analysis was conducted [9]. The 2D velocity and porosity plots were examined to determine the accuracy of the model in replicating fluid-structure interactions. A particle tracing module was incorporated to track the displacement of aerosolized particles as they travelled through the respiratory system. Fluid occlusion was simulated by decreasing the porosity along the open airways and was found to influence particle direction and velocity in the respiratory system.