/Research_Lung

Research_Lung

As part of my university course, I had the opportunity to join the research track. I'm working on the numerical modelling of airflow in the respiratory tract using FreeFEM++ for numerical modelling and Paraview for visual analysis.

Introduction

The human lung has a fairly complex and atypical geometric structure. In medical imaging, it is difficult to visualise the entire lung. In fact, we can only see the upper part of the lung. The idea of the research is to propose a numerical approach to be able to visualise the part non-visible on the medical imaging.

To recreate as closely as possible the simulation of the human lung in reality, there are a number of physical concepts to be taken into account, ranging from Navier-Stokes to the convective term, which allows to play the rigidity of the lung during exhalation to be taken into account, without forgetting the effect of temperature on the lungs. In our case, we are also working on a pre-selected pathology, asthma, so that we can test our simulation in a specific situation.

GitHub structure

To see how the project is evolving, I divide the code into several sections so that I can follow the project's progress and test all the features:

  • Navier-Stokes: The idea is to be able to learn how works FreeFEM++, understand how Navier-Stokes works, how to code it and how the simulation reacts in different cases.
  • EulerImplicit_NS : The idea is to work on the Splitting method (ImplicitEuler) on Navier_Stokes.
  • EulerImplicit_Total : The idea is to work on the splitting method via ImplicitEuler with the final formula written in the paper.
  • EulerImplicit_Total_Comparative: The idea is to work on the splitting method via ImplicitEuler with the final formula, testing several cases in order to keep the most optimal one.
  • Lung_2D: The idea is to be able to mesh the Lung on FreeFEM++.
  • Lung_2D_NS : The idea is to be able to mesh the Lung on FreeFEM++ with Navier-Stokes.
  • Lung_2D_NS_Expiration/Inspiration : The idea is to be able to mesh the Lung on FreeFEM++ with Navier-Stokes and to add to the code the breathing cycle as in reality.
  • NS+EulerImplicit+Lung combination : The idea is to be able to simulate in a lung filled with air with all the previous constraints.
  • Temperature effect: The idea is to add the temperature effect to the formula/simulation.
  • Asthma: The idea is to be able to test the simulation with a pathology for which a state of the art has been carried out beforehand.