CFD Mesh of the Human Nose and Flow Simulation

The complexity of the human nose can be explained by its many purposes. It warms and humidifies inspired air and filters out small airborne particles before air reaches the lungs. The nasal cavity and the sinuses are also used in the olfaction process by trapping odor-bearing particles in a mucous substance that coats the walls. But interactions of these effects are not fully understood. The nasal airways should therefore be studied as a whole. Fortunately, due to the tremendous improvements in computer science during the last decade, it is now possible to perform CFD simulations for extremely complex geometries. In most of the studies available in the literature, the geome try of the patient nose as been either idealized or simplified; i.e. only the meati are modeled and the sinuses are ignored. This simplification process can be long and cumbersome or worse can lead to errors if the simplification used is too strong. Although the sinuses do not significantly affect the flow, they have bee n considered in the presented work to test