Respiration; Nasal airflow; Septal perforation; Airflow patterns; Numerical modelling

In addition to olfactory, reflective and immune activities, respiration is one of the physiological functions of the nose. The article deals with biomechanical research into the influence of pathological and anatomical effects of the nasal septum perforation on the character of flow during respiration. This is related to subsequent changes of flow in the nasal cavity from predominantly laminar to turbulent flow, i.e. undesirable changes in physiological functions of the nasal cavity occur. The objective of the present study was to examine the influence of the septal perforation and its position. For this purpose, numerical simulation using CFD was carried out on the simplified box model, bringing the comparison of the flow pattern both for an intact and perforated septum. The results can help towards better understanding of the given problem and underlie the further investigation in this field.