Abstract
Various therapeutic methods are employed to facilitate the clearance of secretions accumulated in the respiratory tracts of individuals with lower respiratory tract disorders. High-frequency chest wall oscillation (HFCWO) device, designed to apply variable amplitude and frequency vibrations to the individuals' chests, stands out among these therapies. In this study, the effectiveness of this treatment method was investigated numerically using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) on the generated mucus-obstructed bronchial geometry. The conducted analyses compared the effects of vibrations acting in the axial, radial, and tangential directions on the clearance of mucus, which exhibits non-Newtonian flow behavior with shear-thinning properties. Simultaneously, the effects of changes in vibration amplitude and frequency, pressure differentials, fluid properties, and ciliary movements on the flow were separately examined and interpreted. The findings demonstrate that ciliary movements are insufficient in mucus-accumulated airways, applied vibrations enhance mucus clearance, and potential improvements in flow are quite sensitive to boundary conditions.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amalanathan AJ, Sarathi R, Harid N, Griffiths H (2022) Modeling of Spinning disk system for charging tendency of ester-based TiO2 nanofluids along with its interfacial zone. IEEE Trans Dielectr Electr Insul 29(2):462–469. https://doi.org/10.1109/TDEI.2022.3157884
Atanasova KR, Reznikov LR (2019) Strategies for measuring airway mucus and mucins. Respir Res 20(1):261. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-019-1239-z
Bateman JR, Newman SP, Daunt KM, Sheahan NF, Pavia D, Clarke SW (1981) Is cough as effective as chest physiotherapy in the removal of excessive tracheobronchial secretions? Thorax 36(9):683–687. https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.36.9.683
Brunengo M, Mitchell BR, Nicolini A, Rousselet B, Mauroy B (2021) Optimal efficiency of high-frequency chest wall oscillations and links with resistance and compliance in a model of the lung. Phys Fluids 33(12):121909. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0073842
Button B, Boucher RC, University of North Carolina Virtual Lung Group (2008) Role of mechanical stress in regulating airway surface hydration and mucus clearance rates. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 163(1–3):189–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2008.04.020
Carfì A, Bernabei R, Landi F (2020) Persistent symptoms in patients after acute COVID- 19. JAMA 324(6):603–605. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.12603
Chaisson KM, Walsh S, Simmons Z, Vender RL (2006) A clinical pilot study: high frequency chest wall oscillation airway clearance in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Amyotroph Lateral Scler 7(2):107–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/14660820600640570
Chatburn RL (2007) High-frequency assisted airway clearance. Respir Care 52(9):1224–1237
Chatelin R, Anne-Archard D, Murris-Espin M, Thiriet M, Poncet P (2017) Numerical and experimental investigation of mucociliary clearance breakdown in cystic fibrosis. J Biomech 53:56–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2016.12.026
Chen YC, Wu LF, Mu PF, Lin LH, Chou SS, Shie HG (2009) Using chest vibration nursing intervention to improve expectoration of airway secretions and prevent lung collapse in ventilated ICU patients: a randomised controlled trial. J Chin Med Assoc 72(6):316–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1726-4901(09)70378-8
Chen Z, Zhong M, Luo Y, Deng L, Hu Z, Song Y (2019) Determination of rheology and surface tension of airway surface liquid: a review of clinical relevance and measurement techniques. Respir Res 20(1):1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12931-019-1229-1
Chovancová M, Elcner J (2014) The pressure gradient in the human respiratory tract. In EPJ Web of Conferences (Vol. 67, p. 02047). EDP Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20146702047
Cone RA (2009) Barrier properties of mucus. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 61(2):75–85
Deshpande NS, Barigou M (2001) Vibrational flow of non-Newtonian fluids. Chem Eng Sci 56(12):3845–3853. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0009-2509(01)00059-8
Eesa M, Barigou M (2008) CFD analysis of viscous non-Newtonian flow under the influence of a superimposed rotational vibration. Comput Fluids 37(1):24–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compfluid.2007.03.015
Fass D, Thornton DJ (2023) Mucin networks: Dynamic structural assemblies controlling mucus function. Curr Opin Struct Biol 79:102524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbi.2022.102524
Foster WM, Langenback E, Bergofsky EH (1980) Measurement of tracheal and bronchial mucus velocities in man: relation to lung clearance. J Appl Physiol 48(6):965–971. https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1980.48.6.965
Ge WR, Fu P, Wan L (2020) The Efficacy of High-frequency Chest Wall Oscillation (HFCWO) for the Improvement of Symptoms in Children with Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Authorea Preprints. https://doi.org/10.22541/au.159818932.21914581
George UZ, Pidaparti RM (2019) Airway pressure gradient may decrease the beating amplitude of cilia. Front Phys 7:157. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2019.00157
Hess DR (2007) Airway clearance: physiology, pharmacology, techniques, and practice. Respir Care 52(10):1392–1396
Houtmeyers E, Gosselink R, Gayan-Ramirez G, Decramer M (1999) Regulation of mucociliary clearance in health and disease. Eur Respir J 13(5):1177–1188. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1399-3003.1999.13e39.x
Hristara-Papadopoulou A, Tsanakas J, Diomou G, Papadopoulou O (2008) Current devices of respiratory physiotherapy. Hippokratia 12(4):211
Kempainen RR, Williams CB, Hazelwood A, Rubin BK, Milla CE (2007) Comparison of high-frequency chest wall oscillation with differing waveforms for airway clearance in cystic fibrosis. Chest 132(4):1227–1232. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.07-1078
Khoo MC, Ye TH, Tran NH (1989) Lung pressures and gas transport during high-frequency airway and chest wall oscillation. J Appl Physiol 67(3):985–992. https://doi.org/10.1152/jappl.1989.67.3.985
King M, Phillips DM, Gross D, Vartian V, Chang HK, Zidulka A (1983) Enhanced tracheal mucus clearance with high frequency chest wall compression. Amer Rev Respirat Dis 128(3):511–515. https://doi.org/10.1164/arrd.1983.128.3.511
Lai SK, Wang YY, Wirtz D, Hanes J (2009) Micro-and macrorheology of mucus. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 61(2):86–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2008.09.012
Lee YH, Chang SH (2003) The effect of vibration on critical heat flux in a vertical round tube. J Nucl Sci Technol 40(10):734–743. https://doi.org/10.1080/18811248.2003.9715414
Liang L, Wu P (2020) There may be virus in conjunctival secretion of patients with COVID-19. Acta Ophthalmol. https://doi.org/10.1111/aos.14413
Mall MA (2008) Role of cilia, mucus, and airway surface liquid in mucociliary dysfunction: lessons from mouse models. J Aerosol Med Pulm Drug Deliv 21(1):13–24. https://doi.org/10.1089/jamp.2007.0659
Marks JH (2007) Airway clearance devices in cystic fibrosis. Paediatr Respir Rev 8(1):17–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prrv.2007.02.003
McCarren B, Alison JA (2006) Physiological effects of vibration in subjects with cystic fibrosis. Eur Respir J 27(6):1204–1209. https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.06.00083605
Modaresi MA (2023) Numerical investigation of mucociliary clearance using power law and thixotropic mucus layers under discrete and continuous cilia motion. Biomech Modell Mechanobiol 22(1):253–269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-022-01645-7
Mylavarapu G, Murugappan S, Mihaescu M, Kalra M, Khosla S, Gutmark E (2009) Validation of computational fluid dynamics methodology used for human upper airway flow simulations. J Biomech 42(10):1553–1559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbiomech.2009.03.035
Nicolini A, Cardini F, Landucci N, Lanata S, Ferrari-Bravo M, Barlascini C (2013) Effectiveness of treatment with high-frequency chest wall oscillation in patients with bronchiectasis. BMC Pulm Med 13(1):21. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2466-13-21
Obembe AD, Roostaie M, Boudreault R, Leonenko Y (2022) On the effect of boundary vibration on mucus mobilisation. Int J Non-Linear Mech 142:104019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2022.104019
Panchabhai TS, Mukhopadhyay S, Sehgal S, Bandyopadhyay D, Erzurum SC, Mehta AC (2016) Plugs of the air passages: a clinicopathologic review. Chest 150(5):1141–1157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chest.2016.07.003
Qi S, Li Z, Yue Y, van Triest HJ, Kang Y (2014) Computational fluid dynamics simulation of airflow in the trachea and main bronchi for the subjects with left pulmonary artery sling. Biomed Eng Online 13(1):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-925X-13-85
Qi S, Li Z, Yue Y, Van Triest HJ, Kang Y, Qian W (2015) Simulation analysis of deformation and stress of tracheal and main brochial wall for subjects with left pulmonary artery sling. J Mech Medi Biol 15(06):1540053. https://doi.org/10.1142/S0219519415400539
Ren S, Shi Y, Cai M, Zhao H, Zhang Z, Zhang XD (2018) ANSYS-MATLAB co-simulation of mucus flow distribution and clearance effectiveness of a new simulated cough device. Int J Numer Meth Biomed Eng 34(6):e2978. https://doi.org/10.1002/cnm.2978
Şirvancı S, Kaya ÖÇ (2012) Electron microscopy in cilia disorders. Clin Exp Health Sci 2(1):40–52
Smith DJ, Gaffney EA, Blake JR (2008) Modelling mucociliary clearance. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 163(1–3):178–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2008.03.006
Sprott JC (1994) Some simple chaotic flows. Phys Rev E 50(2):R647. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.50.r647
Uhlmann H, Mader G, Finger L (1993) Identification of the Irregular Behaviour in Nonlinear Electrical Circuits by the Time Series Method. Proc. of NDES'93, pp. 163–180.
Vasquez PA, Jin Y, Palmer E, Hill D, Forest MG (2016) Modeling and simulation of mucus flow in human bronchial epithelial cell cultures–Part I: Idealized axisymmetric swirling flow. PLoS Comput Biol 12(8):e1004872. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004872
Vélez-Cordero JR, Lauga E (2013) Waving transport and propulsion in a generalised Newtonian fluid. J Nonnewton Fluid Mech 199:37–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnnfm.2013.05.006
Wanner A, Salathé M, O’Riordan TG (1996) Mucociliary clearance in the airways. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 154(6):1868–1902. https://doi.org/10.1164/ajrccm.154.6.8970383
Wolf A, Swift JB, Swinney HL, Vastano JA (1985) Determining lyapunov exponents from a time series. Physica D 16:285–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2789(85)90011-9
Zhan X, Shen B, Sun Z, He Y, Shi T, Li X (2018) Numerical study on the flow of high viscous fluids out of conical vessels under low-frequency vibration. Chem Eng Res Des 132:226–234. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cherd.2018.01.007
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Both authors contributed equally to this work.
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Hamida El Naser, Y., Karayel, D. Modeling the effects of external oscillations on mucus clearance in obstructed airways. Biomech Model Mechanobiol 23, 335–348 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01778-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10237-023-01778-3