Simulation of nasal flow by lattice Boltzmann methods.

The lattice Boltzmann method is used to calculate the incompressible, viscous flow of air through a model of a nasal cavity, used in experiments. Computations are performed for steady flows at the inspiration and expiration phase of nose breathing. Computed pressure distributions and friction coefficients compare well with Navier-Stokes solutions from a finite-volume method on structured, curvilinear grids. The comparison with conventional Navier-Stokes solvers shows several advantages of the lattice Boltzmann method in particular for bio-medical flow problems. These are the fast grid generation, the simple, granular algorithm, suited for efficient parallelization and the high flexibility for implementing complex boundary conditions and additional transport equations. Lattice Boltzmann methods are therefore efficient candidates for fast flow predictions in the frame of computer-aided rhino-surgery.