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CORESTA Meeting, Smoke Science/Product Technology, 2017, Kitzbühel, ST 55 (also presented at TSRC 2017)

Electronic cigarette aerosol dynamics in a physical model of the adult human oral/pharyngeal cavity

WANG Q.(1); CASTRO N.(2); ZHANG J.(2); LI W.(2); PITHAWALLA Y.B.(2); OLDHAM M.J.(2); LIPOWICZ P.(2); ROSTAMI A.(2)
(1) Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories, c/o Altria Client Services LLC, Research, Development and Regulatory Affairs, Richmond, VA, U.S.A.; (2) Altria Client Services LLC, Research, Development and Regulatory Affairs, Richmond, VA, U.S.A.

The objective of this work is to generate experimental data to validate a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) model for e-cigarette aerosol deposition. An adult human oral/pharyngeal wet walled hollow physical model has been developed for this purpose. The physical model was generated using a 3D printer from the computed tomography (CT) scan of a 28 year-old healthy male and had an internal volume of 69.8 cubic centimetres (cc). The wall was covered with a layer of cotton cloth that can be saturated with water to replicate the high humidity conditions typically encountered in a human oral Oral/Pharyngeal cavity. The model was placed in an oven at 37 °C, and measurements were taken under both wet and dry wall conditions. Deposition efficiency from a MarkTen® product using a prototype formulation was determined by measuring cumulative aerosol mass from five puffs (gravimetric) and individual constituents from a single puff (GC/MS analysis) at the entrance and exit of the physical model. Humidity at the exit of the physical model was maintained at >90 % at a constant air flow rate of 0.66 L/min due to the wet wall conditions. A 37 °C dry wall condition with a constant flow of 0.66 L/min through the model resulted in a mean aerosol mass loss of 6.6 ± 0.9 % due to the deposition to the wall. Under wet wall conditions, the aerosol mass increased by 43 % for a 5 s puff duration, with 55 cc puff volume and 37 °C wall temperature. The increase is due to moisture uptake by the aerosol. The aerosol mass increased by 110 % using a 3 s puff duration, 55 cc puff volume and 37 °C wet walled condition. The experimental data will be used to validate the CFD model.