Prediction of hot spots of ozone flux in a Rhesus monkey lung during steady inspiratory flow

A reproducible pattern of tissue injury induced by inhalation of ozone, a ubiquitous air pollutant, is believed to depend on the local dose delivered to the airway walls. To predict the local dose, we performed numerical simulations of ozone transport and uptake in an anatomically-accurate model of the respiratory tract of a Rhesus monkey. The model geometry was created using three-dimensional reconstruction of the MRI data for the nose, the larynx, and the lung. An unstructured mesh was generated for the resulting structure, and three-dimensional flow and concentration distributions were obtained through numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes, continuity, and species convection-diffusion equations. A quasi-steady diffusion-reaction model was used to account for the interaction between ozone and endogenous substrates in the respiratory tract lining fluid (RTLF). The total rate of ozone uptake within each section of the respiratory tract was determined, and hot spots of ozone flux on the airway walls were identified.