Assessing respiratory airflow unsteadiness under different tidal respiratory frequencies using large eddy simulation method

Unsteady respiratory airflow characteristics play a crucial role in understanding the deposition of toxic particles and inhaled aerosol drugs in the human respiratory tract. Considering the variations in respiratory flow rate and glottis motion under different respiratory frequencies, these respiratory airflow characteristics are studied by large-eddy simulations, including pressure field, power loss, modal spatial patterns, and vortex structures. Firstly, the results reveal that varying respiratory frequencies significantly affect airflow unsteadiness, turbulent evolution, and vortex structure dissipation, as they increase the complexity and butterfly effect introduced by the turbulent disturbance. Secondly, the pressure drops and flow rate at the glottis also conform to a power-law relationship considering the respiratory physiological characteristics, especially under low respiratory frequencies. Glottis motion plays different roles in energy consumption during inspiration and expiration, and its magnitude can be predicted using a polynomial function based on glottis area and respiratory flowrate under different respiratory frequencies. Finally, modal decomposition can be effectively applied to the study of respiratory flow characteristics, but we recommend separately studying the inspiration and expiration. The spatial distribution of the dominant mode characterizes the majority of respiratory flow characteristics and are influenced by respiratory frequency. Spectral entropy results indicate that glottis motion and slow breathing both delay the transitions in the upper respiratory tract during inspiration and expiration. These results confirm that the respiratory physiology characteristics under different respiratory frequencies have a significant impact on the unsteady respiratory airflow characteristics and warrant further study.