VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS IN NASAL CAVITIES BY MEANS OF STEREOSCOPIC PIV - PRELIMINARY TESTS

The prediction of detailed flow patterns in human nasal cavities using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can provide essential information on the potential relationship between patient-specific geometrical characteristics of the nasal anatomy and health problems, and ultimately led to improved surgery. The complex flow structure and the intricate geometry of the nasal cavities make achieving such goals a challenge for CFD specialists. The need for experimental data to validate and improve the numerical simulations is particularly crucial. To this aim an experimental set-up based on Stereo PIV and a silicon phantom of nasal cavities have been designed and realized at Politecnico di Milano. This work describes the main features and challenges of the set-up along with some preliminary results.