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Penetration and secondary atomization of droplets impacted on wet facemasks

Sombuddha Bagchi1, Saptarshi Basu2, Swetaprovo Chaudhuri3, and Abhishek Saha1,*

  • 1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA
  • 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, KA 560012, India
  • 3Institute for Aerospace Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M3H 5T6, Canada

  • *Corresponding author: asaha@eng.ucsd.edu
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 6, 110510 – Published 23 November, 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.6.110510

Abstract

Face covering, commonly known as a facemask, is considered to be one of the most effective pieces of personal protective equipment to reduce transmissions of pathogens through respiratory droplets—both large droplets and liquid aerosol particles. Facemasks inhibit the expulsion of such respiratory droplets from the user and protect the user from inhaling pathogen-laden potentially harmful droplets or their dried nuclei. While the efficacies of various dry face masks have been explored in the recent past, a comprehensive investigation of a wet mask is lacking. Yet users wear masks for an extended period and, consequently, due to the deposition of respiratory droplets released through multiple respiratory events, the mask matrix becomes wet. We, herein, present an experimental study on the dynamics of sequential impacts of droplets on masks to understand how wetness affects possible penetration and secondary atomization of the impacted droplet. Two different types of masks, hydrophobic and hydrophilic, were used in this study to evaluate the underlying physical mechanisms that control the penetration in each of them.

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Fluid Mechanics of Infectious Diseases Invited Papers

Physical Review Fluids publishes a collection of papers associated with invited talks presented at the mini-symposium on the Fluid Mechanics of Infectious Diseases at the 73nd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics.

synopsis

Altering Airflows and Stopping Drops

Published 23 November, 2021

Two new studies provide insights into the efficacy of masks under different usage conditions, results that could help improve strategies for lowering transmission of COVID-19.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 6, 110510– Published 23 November, 2021
  • Received 1 July 2021
  • Accepted 1 November 2021
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