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A generalised porous medium approach to study thermo-fluid dynamics in human eyes

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Abstract

The present work describes the application of the generalised porous medium model to study heat and fluid flow in healthy and glaucomatous eyes of different subject specimens, considering the presence of ocular cavities and porous tissues. The 2D computational model, implemented into the open-source software OpenFOAM, has been verified against benchmark data for mixed convection in domains partially filled with a porous medium. The verified model has been employed to simulate the thermo-fluid dynamic phenomena occurring in the anterior section of four patient-specific human eyes, considering the presence of anterior chamber (AC), trabecular meshwork (TM), Schlemm’s canal (SC), and collector channels (CC). The computational domains of the eye are extracted from tomographic images. The dependence of TM porosity and permeability on intraocular pressure (IOP) has been analysed in detail, and the differences between healthy and glaucomatous eye conditions have been highlighted, proving that the different physiological conditions of patients have a significant influence on the thermo-fluid dynamic phenomena. The influence of different eye positions (supine and standing) on thermo-fluid dynamic variables has been also investigated: results are presented in terms of velocity, pressure, temperature, friction coefficient and local Nusselt number. The results clearly indicate that porosity and permeability of TM are two important parameters that affect eye pressure distribution.

Velocity contours and vectors for healthy eyes (top) and glaucomatous eyes (bottom) for standing position.

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Abbreviations

C f :

Skin friction coefficient

c p :

Specific heat (J/g/K)

Da :

Darcy number

F :

Forchheimer coefficient

g :

Gravity (m/s2)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/m K)

L :

Characteristic length (m)

n :

Normal direction

Nu L :

Local Nusselt number

p :

Pressure (Pa)

Pr :

Prandtl number

t :

Time (s)

T :

Temperature (°C)

u :

Velocity (m/s)

α :

Thermal diffusivity (m2/s)

β :

Thermal expansion coefficient (1/°C)

ε :

Porosity

κ :

Permeability (m2)

μ :

Viscosity (Pa s)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

τ w :

Wall shear stress (Pa)

AC:

Anterior chamber

AH:

Aqueous humor

CC:

Collector channel

HE:

Healthy eye

GE:

Glaucomatous eye

IOP:

Intraocular pressure

SC:

Schlemm’s canal

TM:

Trabecular meshwork

e:

Effective

f:

Fluid

m:

Mean

o:

Ocular

ref:

Reference

s:

Solid

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Funding

Alessandro Mauro, Nicola Massarotti and Mario R. Romano gratefully acknowledge the financial support of TeVR SIR project no. RBSI149484, CUP E62I15000760008. Alessandro Mauro also gratefully acknowledges the local program of the University of Napoli “Parthenope” for the support to individual research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Ingegneria, Università degli Studi di Napoli “Parthenope”, Centro Direzionale, Isola C4, 80143, Napoli, Italy

    Alessandro Mauro, Nicola Massarotti & Mohamed Salahudeen

  2. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Humanitas University, Via A. Manzoni 113, 20089, Rozzano (Milan), Italy

    Mario R. Romano

  3. Department of Eye and Vision Science, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Vito Romano

  4. Moorfields Eye Hospital, London, EC1V 2PD, UK

    Vito Romano

  5. Zienkiewicz Centre for Computational Engineering, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK

    Perumal Nithiarasu

Authors
  1. Alessandro Mauro
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  2. Nicola Massarotti
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  4. Mario R. Romano
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  6. Perumal Nithiarasu
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Correspondence to Alessandro Mauro.

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The study was conducted according to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Mauro, A., Massarotti, N., Salahudeen, M. et al. A generalised porous medium approach to study thermo-fluid dynamics in human eyes. Med Biol Eng Comput 56, 1823–1839 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1813-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-018-1813-4

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