Identifier

196

Date

2022

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Major

Mechanical Engineering

Committee Chair

Jeffrey Marchetta

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted professional and extracurricular practices which typically involve close, face-to-face contact. An obstacle these activities face is the transmission of disease due to aerosolized particles emitted from the oral cavity. A lack of methodology to quantify oral particle emissions exists in the literature. This research aims to meet this need by investigating the quantity of particles exhaled while speaking using laser sheet imaging. To accomplish this, a set of specific vocal exercises and activities were performed by 21 volunteer participants to generate the airborne droplets. Images were captured using the proposed methodology then analyzed numerically using computer software. The resulting data sets were analyzed to determine average peak particulate emission values. Statistical analysis confirmed the laser sheet imaging can capture statistically significant values for vocal emission but cannot yet discern between the sounds being made.

Comments

Undergraduate Honor's Thesis

Library Comment

Honors thesis originally submitted to the Local University of Memphis Honor’s Thesis Repository.

Notes

Data is provided by the student.

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