Hiroko Kitaoka
Division of Engineering Technology, JSOL Corporation, JAPAN,
2-18-25, Marunouchi, Naka-ku, Nagoya 460-0002, Japan
E-mail address: hirokokitaoka000@hotmail.com
(Received January 5, 2012; Accepted April 30, 2012)
Abstract. Ventilation within the lung is air shift generated by displacements of intra-pulmonary structures according to the chest motion. In order to study lung anatomy, physiology, and pathology, 4D (=3D + time axis) models are necessary. The present author has developed software for generating 4D lung models from the trachea to alveoli. Since the lung models consist of 4D finite elements, air flow simulation during breathing can be performed by the use of computational fluid dynamics. In this paper, the 4D lung models and airflow analyses within the models are introduced. New respirology based on 4D modeling and simulation is now beginning.
Keywords: Airway Tree, Alveoli, Breathing, Computational Fluid Dynamics