The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of airborne transmission of infectious diseases. Speech has been identified as an important vector due to the prevalence of asymptomatic spread and the rate at which potentially infectious respiratory droplets are produced when speaking. This research focuses on quantifying human source emissions from speech, including both the size distribution and quantity of respiratory droplets and aerosols, and the expiratory flow field at the mouth that transports them into the ambient surroundings. A multi-disciplinary approach is pursued, using in vivo, physical, and numerical models of speech production. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation (CBET-2029548), the Clarkson IGNITE Fellowship, and the Clarkson SARS-CoV-2 research grant, and consists of a multi-disciplinary team at Clarkson University consisting of Goodarz Ahmadi (MAE), Andrea Ferro (CEE), Brian Helenbrook (MAE), and Sumona Mondal (Math).

Related Publications

  1. Mofakham, A. A., Helenbrook, B. T., Erath, B. D., Ferro, A. R., Ahmed, T., Brown, D. M., Ahmadi, G., 2022, “Influence of two-dimensional expiratory airflow variations on respiratory particle propagation during fricative utterance productions,” Aerosol Science and Technology, In review.
  2. Deng, J. J., Serry, M. A., Zañartu, M., Erath, B. D., Peterson, S. D., 2022, “Modeling the influence of COVID-19 protective measures on the mechanics of phonation,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 151:2987-2998.
  3. Erath, B. D., Ferro, A. R., 2022, “Infectious disease transmission from bioaerosols,” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 1-2.
  4. Mofakham, A. A., Helenbrook, B. T., Ahmed, T., Ferro, A. R., Brown, D. M., Erath, B. D., Ahmadi, G., 2022, “On the variation of fricative airflow dynamics with vocal tract geometry and speech loudness,” Aerosol Science and Technology, 56:446-460.
  5. Ahmed, T., Wendling, H. E., Mofakham, A. A., Ahmadi, G., Helenbrook, B. T., Ferro, A. R., Brown, D. M., Erath, B. D., 2021, “Variability in expiratory trajectory angles during consonant production by one human subject and from a physical mouth model: Application to respiratory droplet emission,” Indoor Air, 31:1896-1912.
  6. Ahmed, T., Rawat, M. S., Ferro, A. R., Mofakham, A. A., Helenbrook, B. T., Ahmadi, G., Senarathna, D., Mondal, S., Brown, D., Erath, B. D., 2021, “Characterizing respiratory aerosol emissions during sustained phonation,” Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, 1-8.