Penetration and Secondary Atomization of Droplets Impacted on Wet Facemasks

Abstract: Face covering, commonly known as facemask, is considered to be one of the most effective Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs) to reduce transmissions of pathogens through respiratory droplets - both large drops and liquid aerosol particles. Face masks, not only inhibit the expulsion of such respiratory droplets from the user, but also protects the user from inhaling pathogen-laden potentially harmful droplets or their dried nuclei. While the efficacies of various dry face masks have been explored in the recent past, a comprehensive investigation of a wet mask is lacking. Yet, users wear masks for a long period of time and during this period, owing to respiratory droplets released through multiple respiratory events, the mask matrix becomes wet. We, herein, present an experimental study on the dynamics of sequential impacts of droplets on masks to understand how wetness affects possible penetration and secondary atomization of the impacted droplet. Two different types of masks, hydrophobic and hydrophilic, were used in this study to evaluate the underlying physical mechanism that controls the penetration in each of them.