A portable, low-resistance puff topography instrument for pulsating, high-flow smoking devices.
A smoking topography instrument appropriate for pulsating high flow rate smoking devices, such as the narghile water pipe, has been developed and tested. Instrument precision and repeatability was determined using a digitally controlled smoking machine, and the added draw resistance due to the topography instrument was measured over the range of expected puff flow rates. The maximum error in any topography variable was found to be less than 5%. The instrument was successfully demonstrated in a pilot field study of 30 volunteer narghile smokers. The pilot study yielded an average smoker puff volume, duration, and interpuff interval of 0.531, 2.47 sec, 16.28 sec, respectively.
Shihadeh
Alan
A
Department of Mechanical Engineering, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon. as20@aub.edu.lb
Antonios
Charbel
C
Azar
Sima
S
D016477:Artifacts; D003196:Computer Graphics; D003625:Data Collection / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D007861:Lebanon; D008432:Mathematical Computing; D009330:Nebulizers and Vaporizers; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012123:Pulmonary Ventilation / Q000502:physiology*; D012212:Rheology / Q000295:instrumentation; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000503:physiopathology; D014029:Tobacco Use Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014160:Transducers, Pressure