Three-dimensional airway reopening: the steady propagation of a semi-indefinite bubble into a buckled elastic tube

Hazel, Andrew L. and Heil, Matthias (2003) Three-dimensional airway reopening: the steady propagation of a semi-indefinite bubble into a buckled elastic tube. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 478. pp. 47-70. ISSN 0022-1120

PDF S0022112002003452a.pdf Download (403kB)

Abstract

We consider the steady propagation of an air finger into a buckled elastic tube initially filled with viscous fluid. This study is motivated by the physiological problem of pulmonary airway reopening. The system is modelled using geometrically nonlinear Kirchhoff–Love shell theory coupled to the free-surface Stokes equations. The resulting three-dimensional fluid–structure-interaction problem is solved numerically by a fully coupled finite element method. The system is governed by three dimensionless parameters: (i) the capillary number, Ca=[mu]U/[sigma]*, represents the ratio of viscous to surface-tension forces, where [mu] is the fluid viscosity, U is the finger's propagation speed and [sigma]* is the surface tension at the air–liquid interface; (ii) [sigma]=[sigma]*/(RK) represents the ratio of surface tension to elastic forces, where R is the undeformed radius of the tube and K its bending modulus; and (iii) A[infty infinity]=A*[infty infinity]/(4R2), characterizes the initial degree of tube collapse, where A*[infty infinity] is the cross-sectional area of the tube far ahead of the bubble. The generic behaviour of the system is found to be very similar to that observed in previous two-dimensional models (Gaver et al. 1996; Heil 2000). In particular, we find a two-branch behaviour in the relationship between dimensionless propagation speed, Ca, and dimensionless bubble pressure, p*b/([sigma]*/R). At low Ca, a decrease in p*b is required to increase the propagation speed. We present a simple model that explains this behaviour and why it occurs in both two and three dimensions. At high Ca, p*b increases monotonically with propagation speed and p*b/([sigma]*/R) [is proportional to] Ca for sufficiently large values of [sigma] and Ca. In a frame of reference moving with the finger velocity, an open vortex develops ahead of the bubble tip at low Ca, but as Ca increases, the flow topology changes and the vortex disappears. An increase in dimensional surface tension, [sigma]*, causes an increase in the bubble pressure required to drive the air finger at a given speed; p*b also increases with A*[infty infinity] and higher bubble pressures are required to open less strongly buckled tubes. This unexpected finding could have important physiological ramifications. If [sigma]* is sufficiently small, steady airway reopening can occur when the bubble pressure is lower than the external (pleural) pressure, in which case the airway remains buckled (non-axisymmetric) after the passage of the air finger. Furthermore, we find that the maximum wall shear stresses exerted on the airways during reopening may be large enough to damage the lung tissue.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2003 Cambridge University Press
Subjects:	MSC 2010, the AMS's Mathematics Subject Classification > 76 Fluid mechanics MSC 2010, the AMS's Mathematics Subject Classification > 92 Biology and other natural sciences
Depositing User:	Ms Lucy van Russelt
Date Deposited:	04 Aug 2006
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2017 14:12
URI:	https://eprints.maths.manchester.ac.uk/id/eprint/435

Actions (login required)

View Item