Polydisperse Microparticle Transport and Deposition to the Terminal Bronchioles in a Heterogeneous Vasculature Tree

The atmospheric particles from different sources, and the therapeutic particles from various drug delivery devices, exhibit a complex size distribution, and the particles are mostly polydisperse. The limited available in vitro , and the wide range of in silico models have improved understanding of the relationship between monodisperse particle deposition and therapeutic aerosol transport. However, comprehensive polydisperse transport and deposition (TD) data for the terminal airways is still unavailable. Therefore, to benefit future drug therapeutics, the present numerical model illustrates detailed polydisperse particle TD in the terminal bronchioles for the first time. Euler-Lagrange approach and Rosin-Rammler diameter distribution is used for polydisperse particles. The numerical results show higher deposition efficiency (DE) in the right lung. Specifically, the larger the particle diameter (d p > 5 μm), the higher the DE at the bifurcation area of the upper airways is, whereas for the smaller particle (d p