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© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

The use of cloth face coverings and face masks has become widespread in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper presents a method of using low cost wirelessly connected carbon dioxide (CO2) sensors to measure the effects of properly and improperly worn face masks on the concentration distribution of exhaled breath around the face. Four types of face masks are used in two indoor environment scenarios. CO2 as a proxy for exhaled breath is being measured with the Sensirion SCD30 CO2 sensor, and data are being transferred wirelessly to a base station. The exhaled CO2 is measured in four directions at various distances from the head of the subject, and interpolated to create spatial heat maps of CO2 concentration. Statistical analysis using the Friedman’s analysis of variance (ANOVA) test is carried out to determine the validity of the null hypotheses (i.e., distribution of the CO2 is same) between different experiment conditions. Results suggest CO2 concentrations vary little with the type of mask used; however, improper use of the face mask results in statistically different CO2 spatial distribution of concentration. The use of low cost sensors with a visual interpolation tool could provide an effective method of demonstrating the importance of proper mask wearing to the public.

Details

Title
Use of Multiple Low Cost Carbon Dioxide Sensors to Measure Exhaled Breath Distribution with Face Mask Type and Wearing Behaviour
Author
Salman, Naveed 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Khan, Muhammad Waqas 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lim, Michael 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Khan, Amir 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kemp, Andrew H 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Noakes, Catherine J 1 

 School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; [email protected] (A.K.); [email protected] (C.J.N.) 
 Engineering & Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle NE1 8ST, UK; [email protected] (M.W.K.); [email protected] (M.L.) 
 School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK; [email protected] 
First page
6204
Publication year
2021
Publication date
2021
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
14248220
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2576497826
Copyright
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.