Rheological properties of synthetic mucus for airway clearance

In this work, a complete rheological characterization of bronchial mucus simulants based on the composition proposed by Zahm et al. (Eur Respir J 1991; 4:311-315) is presented. Dynamic small amplitude oscillatory shear (SAOS) experiments, steady state (SS) flow measurements and three intervals thixotropy tests (3ITT), are carried out to investigate the global rheological complexities of simulants (viscoelasticity, viscoplasticity, shear-thinning, and thixotropy) as a function of scleroglucan concentrations (0.5-2 wt %) and under temperatures of 20 and 37°C. SAOS measurements show that the limit of the linear viscoelastic range as well as the elasticity both increase with increasing sclerogucan concentrations. Depending on the sollicitation frequency, the 0.5 wt % gel response is either liquid-like or solid-like, whereas more concentrated gels show a solid-like response over the whole frequency range. The temperature dependence of gels response is negligible in the 20-37°C range. The Herschel-Bulkley (HB) model is chosen to fit the SS flow curve of simulants. The evolution of HB parameters versus polymer concentration show that both shear-thinning and viscoplasticity increase with increasing concentrations. 3ITTs allow calculation of recovery thixotropic times after shearings at 100 or 1.6 s^-1 . Empiric correlations are proposed to quantify the effect of polymer concentration on rheological parameters of mucus simulants. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 106A: 386-396, 2018.