Degree
Master of Engineering Science
Program
Mechanical and Materials Engineering
Supervisor
Dr. Eric Savory
Abstract
The present work details an experimental study of the cough airflow fields produced by subjects infected with influenza and when they are convalescent, together with data from healthy cohorts. The PIV and HWA measurements were taken far downstream at 1 m from the source within a cough chamber, along with droplet sampling at two different locations and nasal swabs from the sick subjects. The measured data over different seasons were used to evaluate and compare the results from sick, convalescent and healthy subjects. Although a total of 8 sick participants from winter 2014 and 2017 yielded positive nasal swab analysis, the total number of subjects involved in this work were 49 in number. The results from HWA show modest differences between sick and convalescent states of a participant, but the normalized cough velocity time histories from both the techniques follow similar trends. It is anticipated that a larger samples size will provide a clear conclusive difference among coughs from the three categories.
Recommended Citation
Mohamed, Ahmed Faraj Alarbi, "Experimental Measurements of Far Field Cough Airflows Produced by Healthy and Influenza- Infected Human Subjects" (2017). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 4931.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4931
Included in
Biomechanical Engineering Commons, Biomechanics and Biotransport Commons, Other Mechanical Engineering Commons