Numerical simulation of migration behavior of uranium ore dust particles in the human respiratory tract

There is a certain concentration of radioactive dust particles in the air of workplace of underground uranium mines. Some small diameter particles will pass through the masks and enter the respiratory tract which will cause radiation damage to the human body. In order to study deposition regularity of uranium dust in the human respiratory tract, in this paper, we firstly use the RNG turbulence model to simulate the gas flow field in the human respiratory tract Z₀ ∼ Z₃ level under different respiratory intensity. Then we use DPM discrete phase model to simulate the concentration, particle size distribution, deposition rate and deposition share of uranium dust particles after being filtered through the masks in the human respiratory tract Z₀ to Z₃ bronchus. According to the simulation results, we have got the following conclusions: the particles' number concentration of uranium dust after being filtered through the mask in the human respiratory tract basically decreases with the increasing of particle size under different respiratory intensities on the environment of uranium mine. In addition, the intensity of respiration and the mass concentration of particles have an important influence on the deposition rate and the deposition of particles in the respiratory tract.