@misc{KrenkelMichelKeiletal., author = {Krenkel, Lars and Michel, Johanna and Keil, Niklas and Daschner, Jan}, title = {Experimental Investigation of Logitudinal Folds in Endotracheal Tube Cuffs and their Correlation to Silent Breathing}, series = {23. DGLR Fach-Symposium Str{\"o}mungen mit Abl{\"o}sung, 09./10. November 2022, Berlin, Deutschland}, journal = {23. DGLR Fach-Symposium Str{\"o}mungen mit Abl{\"o}sung, 09./10. November 2022, Berlin, Deutschland}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, organization = {Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. / Arbeitsgemeinschaft Str{\"o}mungen mit Abl{\"o}sung, AG STAB}, abstract = {Air leakage past High-Volume-Low-Pressure (HVLP) endotracheal tube (ETT) cuffs creates a potential infection risk for health care professionals during ventilation of patients suffering from contagious airborne diseases. However, unlike silent aspiration, a phenomenon where fluids enter the airways of intubated patients, the aspect of aerosol emergence through cuff folds -what we called accordingly "silent breathing" (SB)- has not been investigated in detail so far. This study investigates air leakage past HVLP cuffs with varying cuff pressures under realistic artificial breathing scenarios experimentally and in addition numerically. The focus was laid on the parametric investigation of the occurrence and furthermore on different influencing factors of silent breathing. The morphology of the folds responsible for the leakage was captured using high-resolution 3D microcomputed tomography (μCT). For the numerical investigations (Com-putational Fluid Dynamics - CFD), the commercial CFD Software package FLUENT 2021 R2 (ANSYS, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, US), as well as the DLR in-house research code THETA has been used.}, language = {en} } @article{TauwaldMichelBrandtetal., author = {Tauwald, Sandra Melina and Michel, Johanna and Brandt, Marie and Vielsmeier, Veronika and Stemmer, Christian and Krenkel, Lars}, title = {Experimental studies and mathematical modeling of the viscoelastic rheology of tracheobronchial mucus from respiratory healthy patients}, series = {Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine}, volume = {18}, journal = {Multidisciplinary Respiratory Medicine}, number = {1}, publisher = {PAGEPress}, address = {Pavia, Italy}, issn = {2049-6958}, doi = {10.4081/mrm.2023.923}, pages = {12}, abstract = {BACKGROUND: Tracheobronchial mucus plays a crucial role in pulmonary function by providing protection against inhaled pathogens. Due to its composition of water, mucins, and other biomolecules, it has a complex viscoelastic rheological behavior. This interplay of both viscous and elastic properties has not been fully described yet. In this study, we characterize the rheology of human mucus using oscillatory and transient tests. Based on the transient tests, we describe the material behavior of mucus under stress and strain loading by mathematical models. METHODS: Mucus samples were collected from clinically used endotracheal tubes. For rheological characterization, oscillatory amplitude-sweep and frequency-sweep tests, and transient creep-recovery and stress-relaxation tests were performed. The results of the transient test were approximated using the Burgers model, the Weibull distribution, and the six-element Maxwell model. The three-dimensional microstructure of the tracheobronchial mucus was visualized using scanning electron microscope imaging. RESULTS: Amplitude-sweep tests showed storage moduli ranging from 0.1 Pa to 10000 Pa and a median critical strain of 4 \%. In frequency-sweep tests, storage and loss moduli increased with frequency, with the median of the storage modulus ranging from 10 Pa to 30 Pa, and the median of the loss modulus from 5 Pa to 14 Pa. The Burgers model approximates the viscoelastic behavior of tracheobronchial mucus during a constant load of stress appropriately (R2 of 0.99), and the Weibull distribution is suitable to predict the recovery of the sample after the removal of this stress (R2 of 0.99). The approximation of the stress-relaxation test data by a six-element Maxwell model shows a larger fit error (R2 of 0.91). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a detailed description of all process steps of characterizing the rheology of tracheobronchial mucus, including sample collection, microstructure visualization, and rheological investigation. Based on this characterization, we provide mathematical models of the rheological behavior of tracheobronchial mucus. These can now be used to simulate mucus flow in the respiratory system through numerical approaches.}, language = {en} }