Dynamics of a Gel-Based Artificial Tear Film with an Emphasis on Dry Disease Treatment Applications

Abstract

This paper discusses the spreading of gel-based ophthalmic formulation on the cornea surface assumed to be flat. We show that gel-based formulations exhibit rheological behaviors that the Herschel–Bulkley model can describe. The continuity and momentum equations are solved numerically using the monofluid formulation and the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method. We investigated the influence of the rheological properties, namely the consistency, the yield stress, and the flow behavior index, on the spreading of a gel-based artificial tear over the cornea surface. We propose optimal values of these properties for efficient gel-based artificial tears.

Keywords

• dry eye disease
• gel-based artificial tears
• Herschel–Bulkley model
• tear film breakup
• VOF method