The present numerical study investigated the transportation time of the inhaled chemicals in three realistic human airway models by adopting a methodology from the field of the building ventilation. Two indexes including “scale of ventilation efficiency 3 (SVE3)” and “local purging flow rate (L-PFR)” were used to evaluate the respective arrival time and staying time under different inhalation flow rates. The general trend of the SVE3 was predicted as expected and the exceptions within the nasal cavities were attributed to the uneven allocation of the inhaled flow between the internal channels and the formation of the vortex circulation therein. The complicated situation of the L-PFR was also explained by the structure constrains. Moreover, the variation of the two indexes with the flow rate was sensitive to the inter-subjective differences but the distribution pattern was not changed significantly. By combining the SVE3 and L-PFR, it could help with assessing the potential effect of the inhaled chemicals on the human health for engineering applications to which the relative impacts are more interested than the absolute value. But for the precise evaluation regarding a specific chemical, comprehensive simulation is still necessary with the surface adsorption included under realistic respiration cycles.

本数值研究采用建筑通风领域的方法，研究了吸入化学品在三种真实人体呼吸道模型中的运输时间。采用“通气效率等级3（SVE3）”和“局部吹扫流速（L-PFR）”两个指标评价不同吸入流速下各自的到达时间和停留时间。SVE3的总体趋势正如预期的那样，鼻腔内的异常归因于内部通道之间吸入流量的不均匀分配以及其中形成的涡流循环。L-PFR的复杂情况也可以用结构约束来解释。此外，这两个指标随流速的变化对主体间差异敏感，但分布格局没有显着变化。通过结合SVE3和L-PFR，它可以帮助评估吸入化学物质对人类健康的潜在影响，用于工程应用，相对影响比绝对值更重要。但是对于特定化学物质的精确评估，仍然需要在实际呼吸循环中包含表面吸附的综合模拟。