  Background: Pulmonary auscultation is a common tool for diagnosing various
respiratory diseases. Previous studies have documented many details of
pulmonary sounds in humans. However, information on sound generation and
pressure loss inside animal airways is scarce. Since the morphology of animal
airways can be significantly different from human, the characteristics of
pulmonary sounds and pressure loss inside animal airways can be different.
Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the sound and static
pressure loss measured at the trachea of a miniature pig airway tree model
based on the geometric details extracted from physical measurements. Methods:
In the current study, static pressure loss and sound generation measured in the
trachea was documented at different flow rates of a miniature pig airway tree.
Results: Results showed that the static pressure and the amplitude of the
recorded sound at the trachea increased as the flow rate increased. The
dominant frequency was found to be around 1840-1870 Hz for flow rates of
0.2-0.55 lit/s. Conclusion: The results suggested that the dominant frequency
of the measured sounds remained similar for flow rates from 0.20 to 0.55 lit/s.
Further investigation is needed to study sound generation under different inlet
flow and pulsatile flow conditions.
