Numerical and experimental analysis of a high speed needle-free powdered vaccines delivery device

Abstract

A unique form of powdered vaccine delivery system, the PowderJect particle delivery system, has been developed. The principle of the system is to accelerate the vaccine in micro-particle form by a gas flow behind a travelling shock wave, so that they can attain sufficient momentum to penetrate the skin and thus achieve a pharmacological effect. One of the most recent developments is the Contoured Shock Tube (CST), configured to deliver powdered vaccine particles to the skin with a narrow and highly controllable velocity distribution and a uniform spatial distribution. In this paper, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been utilised to simulate the complete operation of a CST high velocity delivery system. The key features of the gas dynamics and gasparticle interaction are discussed. Show more