Breath sounds are often used to aid in the diagnosis of pulmonary disease. Mechanical and numerical models could be used to enhance our understanding of relevant sound transmission phenomena. Sound transmission in an airway mimicking phantom was investigated using a mechanical model with a branching airway network embedded in a compliant viscoelastic medium. The Horsfield self-consistent model for the bronchial tree was adopted to topologically couple the individual airway segments into the branching airway network. The acoustics of the bifurcating airway segments were measured by microphones and calculated analytically. Airway phantom surface motion was measured using scanning laser Doppler vibrometry. Finite element simulations of sound transmission in the airway phantom were performed. Good agreement was achieved between experiments and simulations. The validated computational approach can provide insight into sound transmission simulations in real lungs.

中文翻译：

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嵌入顺应性粘弹性介质的分支气道网络中声音传输的实验和计算研究

呼吸音常用于帮助诊断肺部疾病。机械和数值模型可用于增强我们对相关声音传输现象的理解。使用带有嵌入顺应性粘弹性介质的分支气道网络的机械模型研究了气道模拟体模中的声音传输。采用支气管树的霍斯菲尔德自洽模型将各个气道段拓扑耦合到分支气道网络中。分叉气道段的声学通过麦克风测量并进行分析计算。使用扫描激光多普勒振动测量法测量气道体模表面运动。对气道模型中的声音传输进行了有限元模拟。实验和模拟之间取得了良好的一致性。经过验证的计算方法可以深入了解真实肺部的声音传输模拟。