title: Optimal directional volatile transport in retronasal olfaction.
abstract: The ability of humans to distinguish the delicate differences in food flavors depends mostly on retronasal smell, in which food volatiles entrained into the airway at the back of the oral cavity are transported by exhaled air through the nasal cavity to stimulate the olfactory receptor neurons. Little is known whether food volatiles are preferentially carried by retronasal flow toward the nasal cavity rather than by orthonasal flow into the lung. To study the differences between retronasal and orthonasal flow, we obtained computed tomography (CT) images of the orthonasal airway from a healthy human subject, printed an experimental model using a 3D printer, and analyzed the flow field inside the airway. The results show that, during inhalation, the anatomical structure of the oropharynx creates an air curtain outside a virtual cavity connecting the oropharynx and the back of the mouth, which prevents food volatiles from being transported into the main stream toward the lung. In contrast, during exhalation, the flow preferentially sweeps through this virtual cavity and effectively enhances the entrainment of food volatiles into the main retronasal flow. This asymmetrical transport efficiency is also found to have a nonmonotonic Reynolds number dependence: The asymmetry peaks at a range of an intermediate Reynolds number close to 800, because the air curtain effect during inhalation becomes strongest in this range. This study provides the first experimental evidence, to our knowledge, for adaptations of the geometry of the human oropharynx for efficient transport of food volatiles toward the olfactory receptors in the nasal cavity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520; Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802; rxn5006@engr.psu.edu.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520;
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Michalski
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520;
authors.forename: Elliott
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Yale's Center for Engineering Innovation and Design, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520;
authors.forename: Ngoc
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Doan
authors.affiliation: Yale's Center for Engineering Innovation and Design, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520;
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zinter
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305;
authors.forename: Nicholas T
authors.initials: NT
authors.lastname: Ouellette
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06520.
authors.forename: Gordon M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Shepherd
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D009666:Nose / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014835:Volatilization
keywords: fluid dynamics; orthonasal smell; particle tracking; retronasal smell