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The Green's function for the convection-diffusion equation in an analytic lung model

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Abstract

The method of Green's functions is applied to the convection-diffusion equation describing gas transport in the human lung. Explicit analytic solutions are found for the zeroth approximation to the value of steady state alveolar oxygen concentration, given the frequency of breathing, tidal volume, oxygen consumption, alveolar volume, volume of the bronchial tree, and two modelling parameters describing the geometry. The results of the calculation are compared favorably with some experimental data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, 02115, Boston, MA, U.S.A.

    James P. Butler

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  1. James P. Butler
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Butler, J.P. The Green's function for the convection-diffusion equation in an analytic lung model. Bltn Mathcal Biology 39, 543–563 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461201

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02461201

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