A study of Inhaled Pharmaceutical Aerosol (IPA) flow characteristic with various types of fan design in metered dose inhaler

Abstract

Metered Dose Inhalers (MDI) is used to prevent and relieve the symptoms and progression of certain diseases (asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis) by delivering the inhaled pharmaceutical aerosols (IPA) to the desired area. The MDI is easily can be placed in a pocket or purse and ready to be used instantly and these are the reasons why it is used widely. The spacer is used to avoid deposition of most IPA on the mouth throat area whereby it promotes the expansion and mixing of the IPA before it is inhaled. However, the IPA inhaling efficiency using MDI is relatively low compared to other methods. A study on the effect of various types of fan design will carry out to understand their effects on the IPA fluid dynamics characteristics. The Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software was used to analyze the IPA flow pattern inside the spacer. The expected results should show that the effective fan design will generate expected characteristics of air flow inside the spacer and will give a better delivery of the IPA through MDI spacer.