AAAR 34th Annual Conference
October 12 - October 16, 2015
Hyatt Regency
Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Abstract View
Size Amplification of Viral Aerosol by a Batch Adiabatic Expansion System
HAORAN YU, Chang-Yu Wu, Nima Afshar-Mohajer, John Lednicky, Hugh Fan, Alex Theodore, University of Florida
Abstract Number: 670 Working Group: Bioaerosols
Abstract Transmission of airborne pathogenic viruses is of great concerns because of the serious impact on human health, agriculture and homeland security. Sampling is a critical step in risk assessment of the exposure to the airborne viruses. However, conventional bioaerosol sampling devices are based on inertia of sampled aerosol and therefore are inefficient in collecting viral particles, which are generally less than 300 nm. In this study, a novel batch adiabatic-expansion for size intensifying by condensation (BASIC) device is developed as an assisting tool for efficient sampling of viral particles. BASIC relies on the principle of heterogeneous nucleation to amplify the size of viral aerosol through condensation of water vapor under supersaturation condition after rapid pressure loss, which induces adiabatic expansion. Physical and viable efficiencies of BASIC were optimized through sensitivity analyses of key parameters, including dwell time, compression pressure and water temperature etc., on paired trials of before-and-after use of BASIC. Preliminary results demonstrated that after adiabatic expansion the number concentration of supermicron-sized particles increased 10$^2 folds for PSL particles and 10$^4 folds for MS2 phage. Viable efficiency of BASIC and the complete results of the physical efficiency testing will be presented at the conference.