Next generation face-masks

Face masks have been massively used to minimize/prevent the spread of the current Covid 19 virus and other respiratory diseases.

Most current face masks are the disposable ones; over 140 billion of such masks are globally used per month, which poses a significant burden on land filling and littering, and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions for their production and transportation.

This project is aimed to introduce, optimize and test a next generation of reusable face masks that have the highest quality and also provide an advantageous balance between efficiency and user comfort.

A comprehensive numerical and experimental platform developed at four Swedish technical universities will be applied to design and optimize reusable masks and to quantify the performance of the masks.

A comprehensive rheological description of mucus and saliva will be developed, and 3D X-ray micro tomography experiments and lattice Boltzmann pore-scale simulations will be performed to aid the design of the filter layers of the masks.

Large eddy simulation and interferometric particle imaging measurements will be performed to quantify the mask performance including the filtration efficiency and leakage of droplets.

This project addresses the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) by replacing massive usage of disposable face masks with reusable ones, and by providing guidelines for the use and cleaning of new reusable masks.