Authors:
J. Milenkovic
1
;
A. H. Alexopoulos
1
and
C. Kiparissides
2
Affiliations:
1
CPERI and CERTH, Greece
;
2
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece
Keyword(s):
Dry Powder Inhaler, Turbuhaler, CFD, Particle, Deposition.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Biological Systems
;
Complex Systems Modeling and Simulation
;
Fluid Dynamics
;
Multiscale Simulation
;
Simulation and Modeling
Abstract:
In this work the steady-state flow in a commercial dry powder inhaler device (i.e., Turbuhaler) is described. The DPI geometry is constructed in a CAD/CAM environment (i.e., CATIA v5) and then imported into GAMBIT where the geometry is discretized into a computational grid. The Navier-Stokes equations are solved using FLUENT (v6.3) considering different flow models, i.e., laminar, k-ε, k-ε RNG, and k-ω SST. Particle motion and deposition are described using an Eulerian-fluid/Lagrangian-particle approach. Flow and particle deposition for a range of mouthpiece pressure drops (i.e., 800-8800Pa), as well as particle sizes corresponding to single particles and aggregates (i.e., 0.5-20μm) are examined. The total volumetric outflow rate, the overall particle deposition as well as the particle deposition sites in the DPI are determined. The transitional k-ω SST model for turbulent flow was found to produce results most similar to a reference Large Eddy Simulation solution as well as experime
ntal results for the pressure drop in the DPI. Realistic particle deposition results could only be obtained by considering a nonideal sticking coefficient corresponding to a critical capture velocity of 2.7m/s. Overall, the simulation results are found to agree well with available experimental data for volumetric flow and particle deposition.
(More)