Affiliations: College of Science and Technology, Nihon University,
1-8-14 Kanda-Surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 101-8308, Japan. E-mail:
[email protected] | Institute of Computational Fluid Dynamics, 1-16-5
Haramachi, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-0011, Japan
Abstract: To explain consistently determining the global shape of the brain,
the vortex model of the brain was proposed by Nakada. He explained that
structural organization of the brain is guided by the self-organization pattern
based on the principal rule of free thermal convection. In the present study, a
computer simulation of a simple thermal-driven convective-diffusive flow was
performed to clarify the fundamental relation between this type of the flow and
formation of the brain shape. The incompressible Navier-Stokes equations
containing the external force dependent on temperature, and an equation for
temperature were solved with projection method. The multi-directional
finite-difference method was employed to discretize the governing equations.
Computational results were suitably visualized and found to be consistent with
the arguments in the vortex theory that the thermal-driven convective-diffusive
flow is an essential mechanism for determining the global shape of the human
brain.