Effects of thermal airflow and mucus-layer interaction on hygroscopic droplet deposition in a simple mouth–throat model

Abstract

Hygroscopic growth of inhaled aerosols plays an important role in determining particle trajectories and hence local deposition sites. Accurate predictions of airway temperature and humidity as well as droplet–vapor interaction are critical for the calculation of hygroscopic growth. Employing a simple mouth–throat (MT) model as a computer simulation test bed, the effects of interactive heat transfer between air–droplet flow and mucus-tissue-layer have been analyzed. For a steady inhalation flow rate of 15 L/min, air temperature and relative humidity distributions affecting droplet growth, deposition efficiency (DE), and deposition pattern have been compared for different thermal airway-wall conditions. The effects considered include: (i) the latent heat of mucus-layer evaporation and convection heat transfer; (ii) convection heat transfer only; and (iii) mucus-tissue layer with constant temperature. As the most important outcome, the validated modeling results show that thermal airflow and mucus-layer interaction can significantly reduce hygroscopic growth and thereby decrease the DE of multicomponent droplets up to 10%. The modeling framework presented can be readily expanded to other systems.Copyright © 2018 American Association for Aerosol Research