Respiratory droplets interception in fibrous porous media.

ABSTRACT: We investigate, by means of pore-scale lattice Boltzmann simulations, the mechanisms of interception of respiratory droplets within fibrous porous media composing face masks. We simulate the dynamics, coalescence, and collection of droplets of the size comparable with the fiber and pore size in typical fluid-dynamic conditions that represent common expiratory events. We discern the fibrous microstructure into three categories of pores: small, large, and medium-sized pores, where we find that within the latter, the incoming droplets tend to be more likely intercepted. The size of the medium-sized pores relative to the fiber size is placed between the droplet-to-fiber size ratio and a porosity-dependent microstructural parameter Lϵ*=ϵ/(1-ϵ) , with ϵ being the porosity. In larger pores

SUBMITTER: Maggiolo D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8404382 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature