finally!

This is the movie I took for one of the projects I have been working on. Basically the airways in human lungs are liquid-lined flexible tubes. When the liquid lining (or film) is thickened, or disturbed by ventilation, or both, some part of film starts to grow and could form a plug that blocks the airflow. It may cause the airways to collapse.

In another word, it is not good.

So I used a small glass tube (~580 microns in diameter), put some fluorescent particles in the film fluid and watch the film grow. Also, by tracking those particles, I can calculate the velocity field during the airway closure. Below is an example of the velocity vectors before the plug forms.



After the airway model is closed by the liquid, the plug starts to propagate along the tube. And there are pretty vortices in it. :)



That concludes my nerdiest post so far.