Open Access

Richard Pasteka, Mathias Forjan

• Aerosols are an integral part of everyday life and as such are inhaled under various conditions and circumstances. These may vary based on the health and activity status of an individual. The aim of this work is to analyse the particle deposition mechanisms during the simulation of three different breathing patterns using an aerosol representing the PM1 fraction of fine particles. The active electro-mechanical lung simulator xPULM is utilized as a driving force and is combined with a non-invasive direct reading optical aerosol measurement system. Results show differences between the number of deposited particles for the three breathing patterns and for the three typical size ranges of airborne particles. Overall, the presented approach demonstrates the possibility of determining the changes of aerosol uptake based on different breathing patterns using the electro-mechanical lung simulator and laboratory produced aerosols. Further measurement cycles must be performed in order to validate the found interactions and to characterize the major influencing parameters.