Experimental and numerical determination of odorant solubility in nasal and olfactory mucosa

Odorant deposition in the nasal and olfactory mucosas is dependent on a number of factors including local air/odorant flow distribution patterns, odorant mucosal solubility and odorant diffusive transport in the mucosa. Although many of these factors are difficult to measure, mucosal solubility in the bullfrog mucus has been experimentally determined for a few odorants. In the present study an experimental procedure was combined with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) techniques to further describe some of the factors that govern odorant mucosal deposition. The fraction of odorant absorbed by the nasal mucosa (eta) was experimentally determined for a number of odorants by measuring the concentration drop between odorant 'blown' into one nostril and that exiting the contralateral nostril while the subject performed a velopharyngeal closure. Odorant concentrations were measured with a photoionization detector. Odorants were delivered to the nostrils at flow rates of 3.33 and 10 l/min. The velopharyngeal closure nasal air/odorant flows were then simulated using CFD techniques in a 3-D anatomically accurate human nose modeland the mucosal odorant uptake was numerically calculated. The comparison between the numerical simulations and the experimental results lead to an estimation of the human mucosal odorant solubility and the mucosal effective diffusive transport resistance. The results of the study suggest that the increase in diffusive resistance of the mucosal layer over that of a thin layer of water seemed to be general and non-odorant-specific; however, the mucosa solubility was odorant specific and usually followed the trend that odorants with lower water solubility were more soluble in the mucosa than would be predicted from water solubility alone. The ability of this approach to model odorant movement in the nasal cavity was evaluated by comparison of the model output with known values of odorant mucosa solubility.