Avalanches in the lung: A statistical mechanical model
Condensed Matter
2009-10-28 v1
Abstract
We study a statistical mechanical model for the dynamics of lung inflation which incorporates recent experimental observations on the opening of individual airways by a cascade or avalanche mechanism. Using an exact mapping of the avalanche problem onto percolation on a Cayley tree, we analytically derive the exponents describing the size distribution of the first avalanches and test the analytical solution by numerical simulations. We find that the tree-like structure of the airways together with the simplest assumptions concerning opening threshold pressures of each airway, is sufficient to explain the existence of power-law distributions observed experimentally.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9602046,
title = {Avalanches in the lung: A statistical mechanical model},
author = {A. -L. Barabási and S. V. Buldyrev and H. E. Stanley and B. Suki},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9602046},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
4 pages, Figures avaliable by mail from [email protected], REVTEX