Better understanding of airway wall shear stress/strain rate is very important in order to prevent inflammation in patients undergoing mechanical ventilation due to respiratory problems in intensive-care medicine. The objective of this study was to investigate the role of mechanical ventilation waveforms on airway wall shear/strain rate using computational fluid dynamics analysis. Six different waveforms were considered to investigate the airway wall shear stress (WSS) from fluid dynamics analysis for the airway geometry of two-to-three generations. The simulation results showed that Original with Sine Inhale Waveform (OSIW) produced the highest WSS value and the Near True Sine Waveform produced the lowest WSS value. Also, the Original with Sine Inhale Waveform and the Short Sine Inhale with Long Sine Exhale Waveform (SSILSEW) produced a higher shear strain rate in comparison to the Original Waveform (OW). These results, combined with optimization, suggest that it is possible to develop a set of mechanical ventilation waveform strategies to avoid inflammation in the lung.
Keywords: Airway wall shear; fluid dynamics analysis; mechanical ventilation; strain rate.