A quasi-3D wire approach to model pulmonary airflow in human airways

The models used for modeling the airflow in the human airways are either 0-dimensional compartmental or full 3-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. In the former, airways are treated as compartments, and the computations are performed with several assumptions, thereby generating a low-fidelity solution. The CFD method displays extremely high fidelity since the solution is obtained by solving the conservation equations in a physiologically consistent geometry. However, CFD models (1) require millions of degrees of freedom to accurately describe the geometry and to reduce the discretization errors, (2) have convergence problems, and (3) require several days to simulate a few breathing cycles. In this paper, we present a novel, fast-running, and robust quasi-3D wire model for modeling the airflow in the human lung airway. The wire mesh is obtained by contracting the high-fidelity lung airway surface mesh to a system of connected wires, with well-defined radii. The conservation equations are then solved in each wire. These wire meshes have around O(1000) degrees of freedom and hence are 3000 to 25 000 times faster than their CFD counterparts. The 3D spatial nature is also preserved since these wires are contracted out of the actual lung STL surface. The pressure readings between the 2 approaches showed minor difference (maximum error = 15%). In general, this formulation is fast and robust, allows geometric changes, and delivers high-fidelity solutions. Hence, this approach has great potential for more complicated problems including modeling of constricted/diseased lung sections and for calibrating the lung flow resistances through parameter inversion.