Reconstruction of complex passageways for simulations of transport phenomena: development of a graphical user...

Flow of fluids, such as blood, lymph and air, plays a major role in the normal physiology of all living organisms. Within individual organ systems, flow fields may significantly influence the transport of solutes, including nutrients and chemical toxicants, to and from the confining vessel walls (epithelia and endothelia). Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides a potentially useful tool for biologists and toxicologists investigating solute disposition in these flow fields in both normal and disease states. Application of CFD is dependent upon generation of accurate representations of the geometry of the system of interest in the form of a computational reconstruction. The present investigations, which were based on studies of the toxicology of inhaled reactive gases in the respiratory tract of rodents, provide computer programs for the generation of finite element meshes from serial tissue cross-sections. These programs, which interface with a commercial finite element fluid dynamics simulation package (FIDAP 7.05, Fluid Dynamics International, Evanston, IL), permit simulation of fluid flow in the complex geometries and local solute mass flux to the vessel walls of biological systems. The use of these programs and their application to studies of respiratory tract toxicology are described.