Predicting regional deposition patterns of inhaled aerosols is important for the design and optimization of pharmaceutical formulations. Variabilities in the respiratory tracts of patients complicate the efforts to understand patterns of regional deposition and point towards the need for patient-specific airflow analysis. In this regard, computer simulations can be used to predict regional deposition, thus helping in the development of targeted inhalation therapies that are customized, if not to individuals, at least to classes of patients. Such computations need to be affordable for use in routine medical evaluations of patients. Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) are computationally too demanding for routine use, while Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are now becoming barely affordable. Thus, for routine computations the emphasis remains on modeling approaches, such as Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) closures. Nevertheless, DNS and LES can be used to elucidate the regional flow characteristics in the conducting airways, thus helping to ensure that RANS computations are properly tuned to capture the most important flow features.
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