A Unified Experimental and Modelling Approach to Determine the Infectious Viral Bio-Aerosol Filtration Efficacy of Face Coverings.

Virustatic在2020年Covid-19大流行期间推出了他们的旗舰产品，一种名为Virustatic(r) SHIELD的透气面罩。广泛的实验室测试和用户反馈相结合，提供了极好的证据，表明SHIELD比其他商用面罩具有更高的透气性，同时由于使用了一种新型抗病毒涂层，提高了过滤和可重复使用性，因此保留了其病毒气溶胶过滤功效。然而，据我们所知，对所有设计的口罩对传染性病毒气溶胶的实际过滤效果的全面定量分析尚未完全实现。鉴于2019冠状病毒病的全球经验，大流行防范现在已被认为是至关重要的。尽管如此，个人防护装备（PPE）面罩的所有标准化检测要么集中在手工作业（其中固体颗粒的过滤是关键），要么集中在医院环境中的大液滴，但没有重点过滤空气传播的致病性气溶胶。我们认为，考虑到适宜性、泄漏和病毒气溶胶捕获，目前PPE口罩的标准检测没有充分测试口罩在实际应用中的功效。考虑到这些问题的新测试不仅可以提供有关现有口罩的宝贵信息，还可以更好地了解材料选择、结构、活性涂层和形状配合等不同参数如何影响新型面罩的设计。目前，无论是实验还是计算，设计师和创新者都没有工具来预测不同的设计选择将如何影响他们的口罩在现实世界中的实际功效。该项目的目的是设计和测试一种描述口罩对病毒气溶胶过滤功效的新方法，以便我们有更好的工具来设计和测试未来流行病的最佳口罩。为此，我们还将开发一套模型，以了解不同的设计参数如何影响过滤效果，以帮助设计预防大流行的创新解决方案。

Virustatic launched their flagship product, a breathable face covering called the Virustatic(r) SHIELD, in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Extensive laboratory testing and user feedback combined to give an excellent body of evidence that the SHIELD offers greater breathability than other commercial face coverings while retaining its viral aerosol filtration efficacy due to the use of a novel antiviral coating that improved filtration and reusability. However, full quantitative analysis of real-world filtration efficacy of face masks of all designs for infectious viral aerosols has not, to our knowledge, been achieved in its entirety.Pandemic preparedness has now been recognised as being of utmost importance due to the global experience of Covid-19\. Despite this, all standardised testing for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) face coverings has either been focussed on manual work (where filtration of solid particles is the key) or in a hospital setting for large liquid droplets, but without a focus on filtering airborne pathogenic aerosols. It is our opinion that the current standard testing for PPE face coverings does not adequately test the efficacy of face coverings for practical applications, considering fit, leakage and viral aerosol capture.New tests that consider these issues will not only give valuable information on existing face masks, but also provide a better understanding of how different parameters such as material choice, structure, active coatings and form fit could inform the design of novel face coverings. There are currently no tools, either experimental or computational, available to designers and innovators to predict how different design choices will affect the actual real-world efficacy of their face masks.The aim of this project is to design and test a novel method for describing face covering efficacy for viral aerosol filtration so that we have better tools to design and test the best face coverings for future pandemics. In support of this we will also develop a modelling suite to understand how different design parameters effect filtration efficacy to aid in the design for new innovative solutions to pandemic prevention.