A CFD Qualitative Study of an Infant's Plethysmograph

Abstract

In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate the effects of respiration in displacement ventilated whole body plethysmograph for infants. It is found that CFD allows to simulate the effects seen in experimental results in a satisfactory manner. Grid density, especially in the exhalation zone, is paramount. The choice of flow rate is more important for the flow pattern, the thermal comfort and the air quality inside the plethysmograph. Calculations are carried out in the case of an infant model, in sleep position inside the apparatus, during an exhalation phase with a constant flow rate.  Airflow is predicted using a commercial computational fluids dynamic software called Fluent (FLUENT Inc.). Turbulent modeling is accomplished  with the low-Reynolds number k-e model.