Experimental evaluation of pressure drop for flows of air and heliox through upper and central conducting airway replicas of 4- to 8-year-old children.

Airway resistance describes the ratio between pressure drop and flow rate through the conducting respiratory airways. Analytical models of airway resistance for tracheobronchial airways have previously been developed and assessed without upper airways positioned upstream of the trachea. This work investigated pressure drop as a function of flow rate and gas properties for upper and central airway replicas of 10 child subjects, ages 4-8. Replica geometries were built based on computed tomography scan data and included airways from the nose through 3-5 distal branching airway generations. Pressure drop through the replicas was measured for constant inspiratory flows of air and heliox. For both the nose-throat and branching airways, the relationship between non-dimensional coefficient of friction, CF, with Reynolds number, Re, was found to resemble the turbulent Blasius equation for pipe flow, where CF∝Re-0.25. Additionally, pressure drop ratios between heliox and air were consistent with analytical predictions for turbulent flow. The presence of turbulence in the branching airways likely resulted from convection of turbulence produced upstream in the nose and throat. An airway resistance model based on the Blasius pipe friction correlation for turbulent flow was proposed for prediction of pressure drop through the branching bronchial airways downstream from the upper airway.