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Revolutionising healthcare protection systems of aerosol transmission: The development of next generation facemasks

Academic lead
Jim McQuaid, School of Earth & Environment, j.b.mcquaid@leeds.ac.uk
Co-supervisor(s)
Dave Hodgson, School of Earth & Environment, D.Hodgson@leeds.ac.uk, Gareth Keevil, School of Earth & Environment, g.m.keevil@leeds.ac.uk, Cath Noakes, School of Civil Engineering, C.J.Noakes@leeds.ac.uk, Nik Kapur, School of Mechanical Engineering, N.Kapur@leeds.ac.uk
Project themes
Environmental Flows

This project will design a mask system capable of providing size segregated aerosols from human subjects. This will be used to ascertain the transmission characteristics across the size range of exhaled aerosols. It is known that virus viability /and effectiveness in spreading disease can be dependent upon the particle size. It is thus critical that there is a route to engineering a new type of diagnostic facemask that can provide size fractionation in a reliable and reproducible manner.

The mask system will be suitable to use with a broad cross section of facial shapes to ensure that a robust cross section of face types is used to test the size segregation across a broad cross-section of maxillofacial (jaw/facial) geometries.