Interaction of Bio-Aerosols with Shock/Blast Waves: Dispersion, Activation, and Destruction of Airborne Biological Threats

摘要

A new protocol was developed for laboratory study of the interaction of hazardous bioaerosols with shock/blast waves. The method determined the viability of endospores as a function of shock strength (post-shock temperature) and used laser-based diagnostics to monitor the products of endospore rupture. Aqueous aerosols laden with bacterial endospores and silica counting beads were produced and the subsequent fog was loaded into the test region of a gas-driven shock tube where it was subjected to shock waves of controlled strength. In situ optical diagnostics monitored the water evaporation, gas temperature, and the production of UV-absorbing lysate molecules from spore rupture. Shock-treated bioaerosol samples were enumerated by flow cytometry and viability was assessed by standard plating techniques. This new experimental laboratory protocol was used to investigate the post- shock-heating survival of three strains of endospores (Bacillus atrophaeus, Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus thuringiensis, Al Hakam). The loss of viability by shock-treated endospores was discovered to follow an exponential decay with temperature (Arrhenius rate behavior) for the three strains of endospores investigated. The in situ laser extinction measurements were used to determine the rate of spore destruction as a function of post-shock temperature.