Like many parts of the human body, the lungs have remained an untamed frontier in terms of visualizing and simulating the respiratory process. Modern medicine has identified the form and function of the lungs, but man has yet to witness the respiratory cycle of the human lung first hand, to fully understand the process and how it is affected by disease, pollution and other inhaled substances.

However, a team of researchers led by Robert Kunz, Ph.D., head of the Computational Mechanics Division at Pennsylvania State University’s Applied Research Laboratory, is breathing new life into the study of lung function using cutting-edge CFD modeling and high-performance computing to simulate human respiration.