Mucus Flow in Human Lung Airways: Effects of Air Velocity, Cilia Tip Velocity and Porosity Parameter

In this paper, a two layer steady state mathematical model is presented to study the mucus flow in the human lung airways airflow, cilia beating and porosity parameter due to formation of ciliary porous bed in contact with the epithelium. The effect of airflow is considered by prescribing the air-velocity at the mucus-air interface. The effects of pressure gradients present in the fluid and gravitational force are also taken into account. The serous layer fluid and mucus both are taken as Newtonian fluid. It has been shown that mucus flow rate decreases as the viscosities of mucus and serous layer fluid increase and it increases as the air-velocity at the mucus-air interface, pressure drop and gravitational force increase. It has been also observed that mucus flow rate increases as the porosity parameter increase.