Study on the Effects of Dust Particle Size and Respiratory Intensity on the Pattern of Respiratory Particle Deposition in Humans

Abstract

Nowadays, dust exposure pollution is receiving a lot of attention due to its significant impact on public health. To investigate the impact of dust particle size and human respiratory strength on respiratory particle deposition patterns, data was collected through on-site surveys. The study analyzed the equivalent respiratory strength, dust environment characteristics, and bronchial particle escape and deposition patterns of humans in fully mechanized mining faces at various operating times. This was done using ergonomic energy consumption simulation experiments and a fluid–solid interaction method of CFD-DEM. The findings revealed that as humans worked continuously for 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min, their respiratory intensity corresponded to 8, 18, 30, 42, and 50 L/min, respectively. According to the field investigation and particle size analysis, the particle size distribution of 1~5, 5~10, 10~20, 20~30, and 30~40 μm particles accounted for 36%, 26%, 15%, 11%, and 10%, respectively. In general, the deposition rate of dust was highest in the main bronchus of the respiratory tract, followed by the trachea area. Particles ranging from 5 to 10 μm in size were observed to have a higher likelihood of escaping from the tertiary bronchioles and entering the secondary bronchial regions. Conversely, particles larger than 20 μm exhibited a deposition rate of up to 80% in the tertiary bronchial regions. It was noted that the bronchial deposition rate of particles of varying sizes increased with respiratory strength, with smaller particles showing greater sensitivity to changes in respiratory strength in terms of the deposition fraction. Among the different particle sizes, the deposition rate of 5–10 μm particles exhibited the most variation with increasing respiration intensity, ranging up to 17%.