Three-dimensional numerical simulation of human nasal cilia in the periciliary liquid layer

Abstract

A three-dimensional numerical model is developed to simulate the human nasal cilia motion in the periciliary liquid (PCL) layer. The governing equations are solved using the immersed boundary method combined with the projection method. The cilia beating pattern is imposed as an input for the calculation. The ciliary forces are computed by the direct forcing method. The present preliminary results are consistent with other reported results for the average velocity of the PCL and its linear dependency on the cilia beat frequency.