Interferometric laser imaging for respiratory droplets sizing

Due to its importance in airborne disease transmission, especially because of the COVID-19 pandemic, much attention has recently been devoted by the scientific community to the analysis of dispersion of particle-laden air clouds ejected by humans during different respiratory activities. In spite of that, a lack of knowledge is still present particularly with regard to the velocity of the emitted particles, which could differ considerably from that of the air phase. The velocity of the particles is also expected to vary with their size. In this work, simultaneous measurements of size and velocity of particles emitted by humans while speaking have been performed by means of Interferometric Laser Imaging Droplet Sizing (ILIDS). This technique allowed us to detect emitted particles with size down to 2 µm as well as to quantify all three components of the velocity vector and the particle concentration. The outcomes of this work may be used as boundary conditions for numerical simulations of infected respiratory cloud transmission. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]