Understanding the mechanics of Shirodhara Process

Umang SuranaProf. C Lakshmana Rao

Akshay Iyer

Shirodhara• Shirodhara means dripping of oil like a thread (dhara) on the head (shir).

It is an ayurvedic medical treatment

Figure 1: A patient undergoing treatment

Benefits of Shirodhara

• The Shirodhara technique soothes and invigorates the senses and the mind.

A total feeling of • wellness, • mental clarity and • comprehension is experienced in this process.

Healing Robot Study

• Developed a healing robot which conducts Shirodhara in a computerized reproducible manner.

• In Oriental medicine, the effects on practitioners as well as patients are included as important factors for the treatments.

• Active Shirodhara shows better results than controlled one.

• Sesame oil was best among the other media.

Healing Robot Study contd.

• Plain sesame oil was used as the dripping medium.• Manual procedure is exactly replicated by machine.• Shirodhara is more effective than other relaxation

techniques. • In general practice, relaxation techniques are better

than medicinal (relaxation technique as algae pack, medicines such as benzodiazepines or non-benzodiazepines ) and other methods.

• Hence, Shirodhara is one of the most effective practice for insomnia and other related diseases

Factors Considered important for experiments

Experiments were conducted to understand the role of • coconut, wick and the pot. • fluid temperature • It shows out that coconut arrests the fluids

movements and make the flow smooth. • It also reduces turbidity and hence the fluid is

laminar.

Factors contd.

• This is very important from the medical aspect as the flow and mass falling on patient’s head is constant.

• Varying flow and mass density may have harmful effects as Shirodhara have an impact on brain’s neural system

• Similarly wick’s porous media makes the flow constant arresting the effect of flow under gravity.

• The shape of Pot and wick together helps in making the flow rate constant.

Experiments and Results

Effect of coconut and wick on flow rate • To understand the effect of viscosity and density of

fluids, numerous experiments were conducted.

Figure 2: Comparison of flow rate

Contd

• The above graph shows how the fluid flew more constant with the assembly rather than free flow for a volume of 900 ml.

• Due to free flow under gravity, the flow rate is high and dips down slowly.

• The graph shows dip in rate as oil flows out (reducing the height in the beaker).

• Whereas with wick and coconut assembly the flow rate is slow (as required) and is constant over a long time.

Contd

Kinetic Viscosity (KV) Measurement • It is important in understanding the behaviour

of the flow and is measured at around 37 ºC i.e. the operating temperature for Shirodhara Table 1: The KV shows that the all the three fluids under consideration are Newtonian Fluids

ContdFlow rate measurement• The figure 3 shows Ksheerbala Tailam has the lowest rate of

flow with Avg. 10ml/s followed by Mahanarayan Tailam with avg. 15ml/s.

• The fastest flowing liquid is Kasaya with 19ml/s.

Figure 3: A comparison of flow rate of different fluids

Comparing error in flow rate measurement • Percentage deviation in the flow rates, a

measure of inconsistence or turbulence was compared to understand the principle behind using coconut and wick and also how different fluids (depending on kinetic viscosity) behaves differently. Oil used is Ksheerbala Tailam.

Erro

r %

Figure 4: Comparison of flow rate variation (error) in different cases

Experiments on Wick 1. Impact on flow: • Role of wick is quite unique. • Apart from making the flow more stable and

constant it helps in increasing or decreasing the flow.

• As the threads are removed, area available for free flow increases and hence flow rate increases.

• Though as shown in the graph below, this doesn’t changes the flow characteristics much as both graphs follow almost the same trend.

2. Porosity: • Porosity of thread plays an important role on both the

quantity and quality of flow. More the porosity more the flow and porosity streamlines the flow making it less turbulent as seen by fig. 3.5 and fig. 3.6 (the figures of porosity changing flow values).

• Methodology: The weight difference of dry wick and wick dipped in Ksheerbala Tailam was noted. With the known specific density of wick, volume of solid was approximated (weight of air is ignored). Finding the volume of oil absorbed gives volume of voids.

Computational Fluid Dynamics Approach

• The main parameter of our interest is exit velocity. Hence, a streamline of the fluid velocity is plotted in the flow domain as shown below.

• The maximum velocity is attained at the exit and its value is 1.53m/s.

• Equation of Continuity: (Inlet Area)*(Inlet Velocity) = (Exit Area)*(Exit Velocity)

• The above equation is valid for incompressible flows (density does not vary with pressure). Let us now calculate the exit velocity.

• Inlet Area= π*(radius)² = 3.14*(0.05)² = 0.00785m²; Inlet Velocity= 0.06m/s (assumed);

• Exit Velocity= π*(radius)² = 3.14*(0.01)²= 0.000314m²

Now using equation of continuity, we get exit velocity as 1.50m/s which is in agreement with the value predicted by the CFD simulation. Similar calculations were performed by assuming different liquids such as acetone and benzene. The results are tabulated below:

Table 2: CFD Analysis on different liquids

• The power required to pump different fluids was analyzed as a measure to understand the flow behavior of the fluids.

• More the power is required to pump a liquid to some height, the higher the flow rate of the liquid as pump power is directly proportional to flow rate (Q), density (ρ), head (h) and acceleration due to gravity (g)

• Density of Milk>water>oil. • Below shown figures 8&9 illustrates how the

more dense liquid needs more power to be discharged to same height as that of less dense liquid.

• Also the same behavior is noticed in power required to drain the liquid from certain height. This shows that the dense liquid will have higher flow rate compared to less dense ones.