Respiratory fluid mechanics

This article covers several aspects of respiratory fluid mechanics that have been actively investigated by our group over the years. For the most part, the topics involve two-phase flows in the respiratory system with applications to normal and diseased lungs, as well as therapeutic interventions. Specifically, the topics include liquid plug flow in airways and at airway bifurcations as it relates to surfactant, drug, gene, or stem cell delivery into the lung; liquid plug rupture and its damaging effects on underlying airway epithelial cells as well as a source of crackling sounds in the lung; airway closure from capillary-elastic instabilities, as well as nonlinear stabilization from oscillatory core flow which we call the oscillating butter knife; liquid film, and surfactant dynamics in an oscillating alveolus and the steady streaming, and surfactant spreading on thin viscous films including our discovery of the Grotberg-Borgas-Gaver shock. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3517737]