Production and characterization of bioaerosols for model validation in spacecraft environment

Anniina Salmela, Eero Kokkonen, Ilpo Kulmala, Anna-Maria Veijalainen, Rob Van Houdt, Natalie Leys, Audrey Berthier, Viacheslav Ilyin, Sergey Kharin, Julia Morozova, Alexander Tikhomirov, Pertti Pasanen

    Research outputpeer-review

    Abstract

    This study aimed to evaluate the suitability of two bioaerosol generation systems (dry and wet generation) for the aerosolization of microorganisms isolated from the International Space Station, and to calibrate the produced bioaerosols to fulfill the requirements of computational fluid dynamics model (CFD) validation. Concentration, stability, size distribution, agglomeration of generated bioaerosol and deposition of bioaerosols were analyzed. In addition, the dispersion of non-viable particles in the air was studied. Experiments proved that wet generation from microbial suspensions could be used for the production of well-calibrated and stabile bioaerosols for model validation. For the simulation of the natural release of fungal spores, a dry generation method should be used. This study showed that the used CFD model simulated the spread of non-viable particles fairly well. The mathematical deposition model by Lai and Nazaroff could be used
    to estimate the deposition velocities of bioaerosols on surfaces, although it somewhat underestimated the measured deposition velocities.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)227-238
    JournalJournal of Environmental Sciences
    Volume69
    Early online date7 Nov 2017
    DOIs
    StatePublished - Jul 2018

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