Department of Engineering Physics, Institute of Public Safety Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China.
J R Soc Interface. 2013 Sep 11;10(88):20130560. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2013.0560. Print 2013 Nov 6.
This work focuses on the size distribution of sneeze droplets exhaled immediately at mouth. Twenty healthy subjects participated in the experiment and 44 sneezes were measured by using a laser particle size analyser. Two types of distributions are observed: unimodal and bimodal. For each sneeze, the droplets exhaled at different time in the sneeze duration have the same distribution characteristics with good time stability. The volume-based size distributions of sneeze droplets can be represented by a lognormal distribution function, and the relationship between the distribution parameters and the physiological characteristics of the subjects are studied by using linear regression analysis. The geometric mean of the droplet size of all the subjects is 360.1 µm for unimodal distribution and 74.4 µm for bimodal distribution with geometric standard deviations of 1.5 and 1.7, respectively. For the two peaks of the bimodal distribution, the geometric mean (the geometric standard deviation) is 386.2 µm (1.8) for peak 1 and 72.0 µm (1.5) for peak 2. The influences of the measurement method, the limitations of the instrument, the evaporation effects of the droplets, the differences of biological dynamic mechanism and characteristics between sneeze and other respiratory activities are also discussed.
这项工作主要研究了口腔立即呼出的喷嚏飞沫的粒径分布。二十名健康受试者参与了实验，使用激光粒度分析仪测量了 44 次喷嚏。观察到两种分布类型：单峰和双峰。对于每个喷嚏，在喷嚏持续时间内不同时间呼出的飞沫具有相同的分布特征，具有良好的时间稳定性。基于体积的喷嚏飞沫粒径分布可以用对数正态分布函数来表示，并通过线性回归分析研究了分布参数与受试者生理特征之间的关系。所有受试者的飞沫粒径的几何平均值分别为单峰分布的 360.1 µm 和双峰分布的 74.4 µm，几何标准偏差分别为 1.5 和 1.7。对于双峰分布的两个峰值，几何平均值（几何标准偏差）分别为第一峰值的 386.2 µm（1.8）和第二峰值的 72.0 µm（1.5）。还讨论了测量方法、仪器的局限性、飞沫的蒸发效应、喷嚏和其他呼吸活动的生物动力学机制和特征的差异的影响。
