Supplemental material to Fritzsche et al. (2022), "Toward unraveling the mechanisms of aerosol generation during phonation"

Abstract

Supplemental material and supporting information for the publication: Fritzsche, L., Schwarze, R., Junghans, F., & Bauer, K. (2022). Toward unraveling the mechanisms of aerosol generation during phonation. Physics of Fluids, 34(12), 121904. (DOI: 10.1063/5.0124944). For the purpose of investigating the atomization of respiratory mucus during phonation, a new experimental setup was designed which emulates the vocal folds, their oscillating movement and the expiratory air flow in a simplified manner. The primary atomization of an artificial mucus can be observed. Based on the shadowgraphy measurements carried out, droplet size spectra were evaluated and the influence of the parameters flow rate, oscillation frequency and amplitude was investigated. Furthermore, high-speed recordings allowed the visualization and discussion of the droplet formation mechanisms.