| This thesis presents an investigation of flow and aerosol deposition patterns in a model human nasal cavity using both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. A novel, standardized human nasal cavity model was created as part of this work by processing 30 sets of computed tomography (CT) scans of nasal airways of healthy subjects. Aerosol deposition in the novel, "Carleton-Civic" standardized geometry of the human nasal cavity was studied both numerically and experimentally. Inhalation flow rates varied from 30 to 90 L/min in the experiments, and aerosol droplets had diameters ranging from 1.71 to 9.14 mum, giving impaction parameters ranging from 123.3 to 2527.6 mum L/min. For the numerical simulations, both the RANS/EIM (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations for the gas phase and Eddy-Interaction random walk Models for the particulate phase) and Large Eddy Simulations were used to better understand the limits of applicability and accuracy of standard numerical methods as available in many commercial packages.;Both experimental and simulated results showed that the mechanisms of aerosol deposition in the standardized nasal cavity were dominated by inertial impaction. Measured deposition data from the standardized nasal cavity transected cited in vitro data based on individual subjects. The data correlated very well with cited in vivo measurements but generally showed less aerosol deposition for a given value of the impaction parameter. Regional particle deposition characteristics within the nasal passages were also investigated both experimentally and numerically, and new trends of regional deposition versus impaction parameter are discussed. These provide new insight into the general deposition behaviour of various sized aerosols within the human nasal cavity. |
