Abstract

What is the connection between fluid mechanics and upper airway physiology? How complicated is the fluid mechanics and what is it telling us?

These are questions which I hope to answer (well, only partly) in this informal talk. First we will look at how to place our study in an engineering context: geometry, flow boundary conditions and (briefly) equations. Various experimental methods and some very large scale computations will be described, and means to characterise performance discussed. We will then consider how to address some problems that are important in understanding and treating disease. At this point it should become clear that we know rather little and that there are great challenges that call for more work in this area.