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A numerical study of the gas and particle dynamics in a needle free drug delivery device

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Abstract

In recent times, a unique drug delivery system known as transdermal drug delivery has been developed which can deliver drug to the human skin without using any external needle. A shock tube system is used to generate a moving shock wave which flows through the tube. The idea is to accelerate particles behind the moving shock so that it can attain sufficient momentum to penetrate the outer layer of the skin (stratum corneum) and have a pharmaceutical effect. The important issue while delivering drug to the skin is to deliver it with uniform velocity and spatial distribution. Among different tried and tested systems the contoured shock tube (CST) seems to fulfill this requirement successfully. This paper focuses on numerically investigating the flow field and analyzing the gas and particle interaction through the contoured shock tube. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been used to simulate and further analyze the flow field. The important issues regarding the flow field and the gas particle interaction are discussed in details.

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Correspondence to Heuy-Dong Kim.

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Recommended by Associate Editor Do Hyung Lee

Heuy-Dong Kim received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Kyungpook National University, Korea, in 1986 and 1988, respectively. He then received his Ph.D. from Kyushu University, Japan, in 1991. Dr. Kim is currently a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering, Andong National University, Korea. His research Interests include High-Speed Trains, Ramjet and Scramjet, Shock Tube and Technology, Shock Wave Dynamics, Explosions and Blast Waves, Flow Measurement, Aerodynamic Noises, and Supersonic Wind Tunnels.

Md. Alim Iftekhar Rasel received his B.Sc degree in Mechanical Engineering from Islamic University of Technology (IUT), Bangladesh in 2011. He is currently pursuing his Masters course in Andong National University, Korea. His research interests include Computational Fluid Dynamics and Two-Phase flow.

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Rasel, M.A.I., Kim, HD. A numerical study of the gas and particle dynamics in a needle free drug delivery device. J Mech Sci Technol 27, 3103–3112 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-013-0829-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-013-0829-9

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