Shirodhara is an Ayurvedic treatment where oil is dripped onto the forehead in a controlled manner. A study developed a robot to perform computerized Shirodhara. Experiments showed that using a coconut and wick assembly produced a smooth, constant flow of oil compared to free flow. Different oils were also tested, with sesame oil showing the best results. Computational fluid dynamics was used to analyze flow properties of various liquids. The results provide guidance on optimizing Shirodhara treatment parameters.

1. Understanding the mechanics of
Shirodhara Process
Umang Surana
Prof. C Lakshmana Rao
Akshay Iyer

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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

11. Contd
Flow 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

12. 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.

13. Error%
Figure 4: Comparison of flow rate variation (error) in different
cases

14. 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.

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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. • 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

19. 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

20. • 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)

21. • 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.