Investigating the effect of the absence and presence of a mask with different porosities on the absorption of particulate matter by the human respiratory system using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) with a diameter of less than 10 µm is among the pollutants in cities that can be inhaled by humans. They are 100 µm in size and are neutralized by the lungs' cleaning system. Particles with a size of 2.5 µm cause cardiac and pulmonary discomfort by settling in the respiratory system. In this research, the absorption of PM by the respiratory system simulated with CFD has been investigated. Also, the effect of using a mask with a porosity of 0.07 and 0.2 on the absorption of PM has been investigated. The results show that the percentage of particle absorption for laminar flow and flow rates of 20, 25, and 30 lit/min is equal to 96.87 %, 97.19 %, and 97.64 %. With the increase of fluorite, the percentage of absorption of particles also increases. The percentage of particle absorption for turbulent flow and flow rates of 40, 60, and 100 lit/min is equal to 98.67 %, 98.65 %, and 99.59 %. With the increase of fluorite, the percentage of absorption of particles also increases. The absorption of particles for 1, 2.5, and 10 µm is close to each other for laminar respiratory flows, while it does not show this in a turbulent flow. The respiratory filter with a porosity of 0.07 is ideal and can filter particles up to 99 %. According to the results obtained in this project, in the porosity of 0.07, the filtration of 1-µm particles is the best compared to the rest of the investigated porosity.

Keywords

• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation
• Respiratory system
• Particulate matter
• Filtration