title: Study of contact characteristics between a respirator and a headform.
abstract: This article presents a computational study on contact characteristics of contact pressure and resultant deformation between an N95 filtering facepiece respirator and a newly developed digital headform. The geometry of the headform model is obtained based on computed tomography scanning of a volunteer. The segmentation and reconstruction of the headform model is performed by Mimics v16.0 (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium), which is a medical image processing software. The respirator model is obtained by scanning the surface of a 3M 8210 N95 respirator using a 3D digitizer and then the model is transformed by Geomagic Studio v12.0 (3D system, Rock Hill, SC), a reverse engineering software. The headform model contains a soft tissue layer, a skull layer, and a separate nose. The respirator model contains two layers (an inner face sealing layer and an outer layer) and a nose clip. Both the headform and respirator are modeled as solid elements and are deformable. The commercial software, LS-DYNA (LSTC, Livermore, CA), is used to simulate the contact between the respirator and headform. Contact pressures and resultant deformation of the headform are investigated. Effects of respirator stiffness on contact characteristics are also studied. A Matlab (MathWorks, Natick, MA) program is developed to calculate local gaps between the headform and respirator in the stable wearing state.
authors.affiliation: a School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University , Wuhan , China.
authors.forename: Mang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: a School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University , Wuhan , China.
authors.forename: Shengnan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: a School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University , Wuhan , China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: a School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University , Wuhan , China.
authors.forename: Xiaotie
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: a School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University , Wuhan , China.
authors.forename: Yanzhao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D004867:Equipment Design; D020342:Finite Element Analysis; D006257:Head; D006801:Humans; D008422:Materials Testing / Q000379:methods; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D016273:Occupational Exposure / Q000517:prevention & control; D011312:Pressure; D012134:Respiratory Protective Devices; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: CT scanning; digital headform; finite element method; fit and comfort; respirator