Abstract Recent studies have shown that small expired droplets that contain pathogens may play a significant role in the transmission of respiratory diseases. However, there is little data on the generation of droplets from the bronchioles and their deposition in the lower airways during exhalation. We apply a computational fluid dynamics method to study expiratory air flow in a truncated model of the adult lower airways. Assumptions are made to evaluate the transport and deposition of droplets along the airway as these droplets are released in various regions in the conducting airways during exhalation. We find that large droplets (i.e., >5 μm) generated from the bronchioles are very likely to be blocked by the lower airways, whereas those in the submicron range (i.e.,

中文翻译：

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呼气过程中细支气管来源的飞沫在下呼吸道的沉积

摘要 最近的研究表明，含有病原体的微小过期飞沫可能在呼吸道疾病的传播中起重要作用。然而，关于从细支气管产生的飞沫及其在呼气过程中沉积在下呼吸道的数据很少。我们应用计算流体动力学方法研究成人下呼吸道截断模型中的呼气气流。由于这些液滴在呼气期间在传导气道的不同区域释放，因此做出假设来评估液滴沿气道的传输和沉积。我们发现细支气管产生的大液滴（即 >5 μm）很可能被下呼吸道阻塞，而亚微米范围内的液滴（即，