Pressure Loss and Sound Generated In a Miniature Pig Airway Tree Model

Background: Pulmonary auscultation is a common tool for diagnosing various respiratory diseases. Previous studies have documented many details of pulmonary sounds in humans. However, information on sound generation and pressure loss inside animal airways is scarce. Since the morphology of animal airways can be significantly different from human, the characteristics of pulmonary sounds and pressure loss inside animal airways can be different. Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the sound and static pressure loss measured at the trachea of a miniature pig airway tree model based on the geometric details extracted from physical measurements. Methods: In the current study, static pressure loss and sound generation measured in the trachea was documented at different flow rates of a miniature pig airway tree. Results: Results showed that the static pressure and the amplitude of the recorded sound at the trachea increased as the flow rate increased. The dominant frequency was found to be around 1840-1870 Hz for flow rates of 0.2-0.55 lit/s. Conclusion: The results suggested that the dominant frequency of the measured sounds remained similar for flow rates from 0.20 to 0.55 lit/s. Further investigation is needed to study sound generation under different inlet flow and pulsatile flow conditions.