Experimental investigation of face mask filtration in the 15–150 μm range for stationary flows

The effectiveness of face masks for preventing airborne transmission has been debated heavily during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper investigates the filtration efficiency for four different face mask materials, two professional and two homemade, for different airflow conditions using model experiments and artificially generated water droplets. The size range chosen represents particles with the largest volume that can be suspended in air. The particles are detected using double pulsed interferometric particle imaging, from which it is possible to estimate the positions, velocity, and size of individual particles. It is found that all the tested face masks are efficient in preventing particles from transmission through the mask material. In the presence of leakage, particles larger than approximately 100 μ m are completely removed from the air stream. The filtration efficiency decreases with the decreasing particle size to approximately 80 % for 15 μ m particles. The size dependency in the leakage is mainly due to the momentum of the larger particles. The results show that even simple face mask materials with leakage prevent a large portion of the emitted particles in the 15–150 μ m range.