(35a) Advances in the Simulation of Dry Powder Inhalation Flows

The treatment of many respiratory illnesses relies on dry powder inhalers (DPIs) to deliver medication to patients’ airways and lungs through inhalation. The active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) of the drug are particles with diameter < 5μm, that allow the air to carry them to the lungs. Due to their small size and cohesiveness, the API particles form bigger agglomerates, which adversely affect delivery to the lungs. To mitigate this problem, the API particles are usually mixed with coarser lactose carrier particles (50 to 100 μm), allowing the API particles to adhere to the carrier particles. An effective DPI design seeks to maximize the release of the API particles from the carrier particles and suppress their subsequent agglomeration or deposition on the DPI walls. In this presentation, I will illustrate the use of simulations to examine the fluidization, transport, and deagglomeration of the API-carrier agglomerates in a DPI device and the human airways.

Prof. Sankaran Sundaresan is the Norman John Sollenberger Professor in Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Princeton University, where he has worked since 1980. Prof. Sundaresan, known as "Sundar", is a world expert on the modeling and characterization of multiphase flows. Sundar works on dispersed multiphase flows, frequently encountered in chemical reactors and separation devices, that manifest complex structures at different length and time scales – micro, meso, and macro scales, which influence the mixing, mass and heat transfer, and reaction processes. Over the years, Sundar has made important contributions to understanding how to simulate complex flow behavior and relate this information to engineering applications. Sundar won the Elsevier Lifetime Achievement Award, AIChE Particle Technology Forum, 2022, for his research and service. He is a friend and supporter of the particle technology field and we are looking forward to hearing about his work on fluidization, transport, and deagglomeration processes during Dry Powder Inhalation, which are critical for the effective delivery of drugs to lungs.