| NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | April 20, 2020 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | April 20, 2020 |
| Award Number: | 2028075 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ron Joslin
rjoslin@nsf.gov (703)292-7030 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2020 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $74,000.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $74,000.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
341 PINE TREE RD ITHACA NY US 14850-2820 (607)255-5014 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
NY US 14850-2820 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | COVID-19 Research |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
With the rapid spread of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide, highly-protective respirator masks can be crucial to safeguard the uninfected population. While virus transmission occurs via tiny aerosols, current mask coverings rely purely on passive filters; and can benefit from enhanced aerosol-collection and virus-inactivation mechanisms. We propose to engineer a highly-efficient, easy-to-use, cost-effective respirator design that will be significantly more efficient at capturing tiny aerosols. A combination of copper-based filters and an air-transmission passage inspired by nasal structures in animals with an enhanced sense of smell will facilitate droplet capture, followed by virus inactivation via thermal and ionic effects. The final respirator design will directly address the urgent global shortage and immediate national need for more effective masks. By preventing nosocomial transmission, the product can also be a critical game-changer for the healthcare community. For an accelerated concept-to-product transition, we will seek collaborations with virology labs and pharmaceutical companies for detailed testing with live COVID samples.
This collaborative project will engineer a novel, highly-efficient, virus-preventive respirator mask inspired by nasal structures in animals with enhanced olfactory sensitivity. Small aerosol droplets that can carry viruses will be captured from inhaled air by using a combination of copper-based filters and a bio-inspired tortuous passage with periodic thermal gradients induced by spiral copper wires. The aerosol capture will be articulated by modulating the dynamics of flow structures in the convoluted geometry (vortex trap) and by thermophoresis action along the respirator?s internal walls (thermal trap). Cyclic cold/hot temperature changes on the walls, along with ionic activity from the copper material, will be used to inactivate the trapped viruses. The use of these mechanisms is supported by published observations on earlier and current strains of coronavirus. The project will integrate the theoretical, experimental, and computational expertise of the principal investigators in optimizing the design for a new-age respirator, which can be radically more effective at preventing the transmission of COVID-19. To meet the urgent public need, the researchers will establish collaborations with pharmaceutical and manufacturing companies as well as university-based Biosafety Level ? 3 lab units for non-clinical in vivo testing and to ensure rapid prototype development of the proposed respirator masks.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Animal evolution has allowed efficient adaptation to highly fluctuating and extreme external conditions. A central component that modulates the evolutionary process is the need for continuous heat and mass exchange with the environment. The nose is a significant player in the body and environment interaction; it efficiently transports and thermally pre-conditions the external air before reaching the internal organs.
Under the NSF support, we have systematically characterized the turbinate morphology of various species and their relation to pressure loss, heat transfer rate, and flow patterns. We have identified the functional relationships that inform a new generation of air filtering, conditioning and management in disparate environments. Our experiments using selected turbinates and idealized conduits illustrate the importance of functional trade-offs between the contributing factors. We used numerical simulations to replicate the transport of inhaled air for various breathing rates in different tortuosity values of the filter pathway, all inspired by the nasal geometry of high-olfactory animals. The numerical findings on airflow and droplet screening inside the filtration channels were tested with customized experimental measurements on pressure drops, flow rates, and droplet capturing trends. This allowed refining the numerical scheme, for example, by enabling the droplets to ricochet off the internal surfaces of the filtration unit tangentially. We also performed numerical simulations in human and pig airways which demonstrated improved heat transfer rates (between inhaled air and the surrounding cavity walls) in the pig nasal design. Our novel filter designs adopt tortuosity values extracted from pig airways. By combining the experimental and numerical assessments over a wide range of tortuosity values for the filtration pathways, we have derived a parametric insight into the particle trapping efficiency and the pressure drops warranted to achieve different levels of filtration. The detailed findings have been reported in our published articles.
Last Modified: 06/03/2022
Modified by: Sunny Jung
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