Open Access

ARTICLE

Turbulent Kinetic Energy of Flow during Inhale and Exhale to Characterize the Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Patient

W. M. Faizal^1,*, C. Y. Khor¹, Muhammad Nooramin Che Yaakob¹, N. N. N. Ghazali², M. Z. Zainon², Norliza Binti Ibrahim³, Roziana Mohd Razi⁴

1 Faculty of Mechanical Engineering & Technology, University Malaysia Perlis, Padang Besar, 02100, Malaysia
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
3 Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Clinical Science, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia
4 Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, 50603, Malaysia

* Corresponding Author: W. M. Faizal. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Computer Methods in Bio-mechanics and Biomedical Engineering)

Computer Modeling in Engineering & Sciences 2023, 136(1), 43-61. https://doi.org/10.32604/cmes.2023.022716

Received 23 March 2022; Accepted 15 September 2022; Issue published 05 January 2023

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate and present the numerical investigation of airflow characteristics using Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) to characterize the upper airway with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) under inhale and exhale breathing conditions. The importance of TKE under both breathing conditions is that it show an accurate method in expressing the severity of flow in sleep disorder. Computational fluid dynamics simulate the upper airway’s airflow via steady-state Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) with k–ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The three-dimensional (3D) airway model is created based on the CT scan images of an actual patient, meshed with 1.29 million elements using Materialise Interactive Medical Image Control System (MIMICS) and ANSYS software, respectively. High TKE were noticed around the region after the necking (smaller cross-sectional area) during the inhale and exhale breathing. The turbulent kinetic energy could be used as a valuable measure to identify the severity of OSA. This study is expected to provide a better understanding and clear visualization of the airflow characteristics during the inhale and exhale breathing in the upper airway of patients for medical practitioners in the OSA research field.

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