Experimental Study of Aerosol Deposition in a Chamber under Various Mechanical Ventilation Schemes and a Heat Source

Understanding aerosol deposition rate can provide important fundamental information to better design engineering strategies to control the transmission of airborne diseases. Although both ventilation schemes and buoyancy flows affect deposition rate substantially, reports on experimental data are significantly lacking.The aims of this research are to modify an existing small-scale chamber and to measure respirable-size aerosol deposition onto smooth surfaces inside the chamber under two ventilation schemes. The influence of buoyancy flows on deposition rate will be investigated by putting a heated human simulator inside the chamber. Thin glass plates will be affixed inside the chamber to collect aerosols. Mono-size fluorescent particles will be generated and injected into the chamber. The deposition rate will be measured in a wet chemistry laboratory by measuring the fluorescence of the glass samples. Deposition rates will be studied for various flow rates and aerosol sizes. The measured results will be compared with literature results.