The effects of injection modes on instantaneous particle deposition in a realistic human nasal cavity.

To understand the instantaneous particle deposition in nasal cavity, effects of two injection models on particle deposition characteristic were discussed in this paper. Based on a realistic human nasal cavity geometry obtained from CT scans, a comparison of deposition pattern in the nasal cavity between single injection and continuous injection was investigated through the Lagrangian approach. The instantaneous airflow field was simulated with the tidal volume of 159 and 318 mL by two sine wave curves at inlet. For the case of single injection, particles have finished deposition in the first half of inhalation, and a negative correlation between the tidal volumes and deposition can be observed when the particle diameter was larger than 10 µm. Moreover, particles were mainly deposited in the turbinate area that was beneficial for aerosol therapy. The inertial parameter was not suitable to predict the particle deposition in the case of single injection. With respect to continuous injection, a reduction in total deposition caused by the deceleration process of inhalation can be observed after 1.5 s. The deposition was closely associated with the time-varying flow field, and particles were mainly deposited in the anterior region and turbinate area. Besides, the particle deposition increased with the inertial parameter for continuous injection. The results indicated that the injection modes had an influence on both the total deposition and local deposition pattern in the nasal cavity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.