A numerical study of spray particle deposition in a human nasal cavity

Particle depositional studies from nasal sprays are important for efficient drug delivery. The main influences on deposition involve the nasal cavity geometry and the nasal spray device of which its parameters are controlled by the product design. It is known that larger particle sizes (>> 10 mu m) at a flow rate of 333 ml/s impact in the anterior portion of the nose, leaving a significant portion of the nasal cavity unexposed to the drugs. Studies have found correlations for the spray cone angles and particle sizes with deposition efficiencies. This study extends these ideas to incorporate other parameters such as the insertion angle of the nasal spray and the injected particle velocity to observe its effect on deposition. A numerical method utilizing a particle tracking procedure found that the most important parameter was the particle's Stokes number which affected all other parameters on the deposition efficiency.