Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences, Vol 28 No 5 (2024): 1231 - 1245

 

MASK AND ITS PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS WITH COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMIC (CFD) OF FILTERING SARS-COV-2 PARTICLES IN CONFINED SPACE

 

(Pelitup Muka dan Analisis Prestasinya terhadap Penapisan Zarah SARS-Cov-2 dalam Ruangan Terkurung dengan menggunakan Pengkomputeran Dinamik Bendalir (CFD))

 

Nur Atiqah Surib1, Muliani Mansor1, Muhammad Syafiq Ridhwan Mohd Nasir1, Jaalynee Kanniappan1,

I. Wuled Lenggoro2, Khairunnisa Mohd Pa’ad1*

 

1Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra, Kuala Lumpur, 54100, Malaysia

2Graduate School of Bio-Applications and Systems Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), 2-24-16, Naka-cho, Koganei-shi, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan

 

*Corresponding author: khairunnisa.kl@utm.my

 

 

Received: 4 October 2022; Accepted: 15 March 2023; Published:  27 October 2024

 

 

Abstract

SARS-CoV-2 virus can be transmitted through the air to another person via travelling water droplets. The use of facial masks has been strongly recommended to prevent the transmission of this highly infectious disease. Latest recommendation suggested that double mask configuration of surgical and reusable masks perform comparably well to surgical and N95 masks, however its efficiency has not been documented yet. In this paper, the effectiveness of double masks configuration to filter particles travelling through the air was investigated using particle tracing simulation study in the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation. The movement of droplets at size range between 1 𝜇m to 100 𝜇m through the facial masks in a closed room between two people during talking and sneezing was simulated using particle tracing. The total number of particles filtered, and filtration efficiency of each mask were calculated. Our findings indicate that the configuration of N95-reusable mask had the lowest amount of particle escape, resulting in the best droplet filtering of all cases. For the case of the movement of the droplets, it shows that 30 μm and 37 μm droplets that escaped from a surgical mask and a N95 mask may reach 960 m and 631 m, respectively. These results can enhance future prediction of the duration and efficacy of measures required to manage COVID-19 and other outbreaks of a similar kind.

 

Keywords: airborne transmission, double mask, SARS-CoV-2, filtration efficiency

 

Abstrak

Virus SARS-Cov-2 boleh berjangkit melalui udara kepada orang lain melalui titisan air yang bergerak. Penggunaan pelitup muka sangat disyorkan untuk mencegah penularan penyakit yang sangat berjangkit ini. Pengesyoran terkini mencadangkan bahawa konfigurasi pelitup muka berganda bagi pelitup pembedahan dan pelitup guna semula berprestasi setanding dengan pelitup pembedahan dan N95, namun kecekapannya belum didokumenkan lagi. Dalam makalah ini, keberkesanan konfigurasi pelitup muka berganda untuk menapis zarah yang bergerak melalui udara telah disiasat menggunakan kajian simulasi pengesanan zarah dalam simulasi dinamik bendalir pengiraan (CFD). Pergerakan titisan pada julat saiz antara 1 𝜇m hingga 100 𝜇m melalui topeng muka dalam bilik tertutup antara dua orang semasa bercakap dan bersin telah disimulasikan menggunakan pengesanan zarah. Jumlah bilangan zarah yang ditapis, dan kecekapan penapisan setiap topeng telah dikira. Penemuan kami menunjukkan bahawa konfigurasi pelitup muka N95-guna semula mempunyai jumlah lepas zarah terendah, menghasilkan penapisan titisan terbaik bagi semua kes. Bagi kes pergerakan titisan, ia menunjukkan bahawa titisan 30 μm dan 37 μm yang terlepas daripada pelitup pembedahan dan pelitup N95 masing-masing boleh mencapai 960 m dan 631 m. Keputusan ini boleh meningkatkan ramalan masa hadapan tentang tempoh dan keberkesanan langkah yang diperlukan untuk mengurus COVID-19 dan wabak lain yang serupa.

 

Kata kunci: penghantaran bawaan udara, pelitup muka berganda, SARS-CoV-2, kecekapan penapisan

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