Numerical simulation for nasal flow with partial inferior turbinatomy-a turbulent model

Abstract

Partial Inferior turbinectomy is typically performed for patients suffering from chronic nasal obstruction due to hypertrophy of inferior turbinates and are refractory to other more conservative treatments In this paper, the effects of the various manner of incision performed on the inferior turbinates in terms of the resulting nasal air flow pattern were analyzed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The three 3D nasal models with partial inferior turbinectomy were reconstructed from the MRI scans of a healthy human subject by simulating the three remaining shapes of inferior turbinate after the respective turbinate surgery with the use of the software MIMICS 12.1. Thereafter high resolution 3D volume meshes comprising boundary layer effects and computational domain exterior to the nose were constructed. Numerical simulations were carried out using FLUENTS for CFD simulations. The Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations were solved for the turbulence flow with SST k - ω model. The consequences of the various types of turbinate surgery were compared with the originally healthy nasal model as well as the nasal model with severe nasal obstruction. The velocity streamlines, the total pressure drop through the nasal cavity, and the local wall shear stress distribution were presented. The existence of small vortices, relatively larger local velocity and wall shear stress showed that turbinate surgery should be carefully planned as it may affect normal local nasal functions.