The average person breathes in and out 12 to 20 times a minute. With each breath, between 500 and 2000 ml of air flows through the nose towards the lungs. In addition to the general tasks of smelling, immune defence and creating a flow resistance for optimal ventilation of the lungs, the human nose has special functions during inhalation and exhalation. During inhalation, the incoming air is warmed, moistened and cleaned of dust particles, while heat and moisture are recovered via the nasal mucosa during exhalation. The so-called "air conditioning function" of the nose enables optimum gas exchange in the lungs.

"Numerical simulations" in realistic computerised nose models

Due to the complex three-dimensional structure of the nose and the limited accessibility of deeper sections of the nose, in vivo measurements with special miniaturised measuring probes in the entire nose are not technically feasible. A complete measurement and mapping of warming, humidification and particle filtration in the entire nose is not technically feasible in vivo. Since the early 2000s, numerous scientific in vivo studies have been carried out at our clinic using special self-constructed measurement techniques.
These difficulties in the context of in vivo measurements have led to a large number of simulation projects on computer nose models in our working group in recent years, which have provided additional information on the complex "respiratory function" of the nose. Computer simulations on numerical models for the representation of the "air conditioning function" and the intranasal air flow play an increasingly important role.
Numerical simulation is a research method that reproduces the flow behaviour of fluids in a real environment, in our case the air flow in the human nose, in a computer model. Numerical simulations of fluids are carried out using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. This is a process that simulates real flow processes in a computer model and can predict the resulting flow situation. CFD is a long-established process in industry and is used, for example, in aircraft construction and in the automotive industry as a wind tunnel simulation. These computer simulations on realistic nasal models to analyse respiratory function and air flow in the human nose are also part of the current research focus of the clinic's "Nasal Climate Laboratory". The effects of diseases of the nose and the influence of surgical interventions on the nose and paranasal sinuses on the air conditioning function and air flow in the nose are successfully investigated and scientifically published.