Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor environment
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has focused our attention on airborne droplet transmission. In this study, we simulate the dispersion of cough droplets in a tropical outdoor environment, accounting for the effects of non-volatile components on droplet evaporation. The effects of relative humidity, win...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
AIP Publishing LLC
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7685245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33244215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0026360 |
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author | Li, Hongying Leong, Fong Yew Xu, George Ge, Zhengwei Kang, Chang Wei Lim, Keng Hui |
author_facet | Li, Hongying Leong, Fong Yew Xu, George Ge, Zhengwei Kang, Chang Wei Lim, Keng Hui |
author_sort | Li, Hongying |
collection | PubMed |
description | The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has focused our attention on airborne droplet transmission. In this study, we simulate the dispersion of cough droplets in a tropical outdoor environment, accounting for the effects of non-volatile components on droplet evaporation. The effects of relative humidity, wind speed, and social distancing on evaporative droplet transport are investigated. Transmission risks are evaluated based on SARS-CoV-2 viral deposition on a person standing 1 m or 2 m away from the cougher. Our results show that the travel distance for a 100 µm droplet can be up to 6.6 m under a wind speed of 2 m/s. This can be further increased under dry conditions. We found that the travel distance of a small droplet is relatively insensitive to relative humidity. For a millimetric droplet, the projected distance can be more than 1 m, even in still air. Significantly greater droplets and viral deposition are found on a body 1 m away from a cougher, compared to 2 m. Despite low inhalation exposure based on a single cough, infection risks may still manifest through successive coughs or higher viral loadings. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7685245 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | AIP Publishing LLC |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-76852452020-11-24 Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor environment Li, Hongying Leong, Fong Yew Xu, George Ge, Zhengwei Kang, Chang Wei Lim, Keng Hui Phys Fluids (1994) ARTICLES The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has focused our attention on airborne droplet transmission. In this study, we simulate the dispersion of cough droplets in a tropical outdoor environment, accounting for the effects of non-volatile components on droplet evaporation. The effects of relative humidity, wind speed, and social distancing on evaporative droplet transport are investigated. Transmission risks are evaluated based on SARS-CoV-2 viral deposition on a person standing 1 m or 2 m away from the cougher. Our results show that the travel distance for a 100 µm droplet can be up to 6.6 m under a wind speed of 2 m/s. This can be further increased under dry conditions. We found that the travel distance of a small droplet is relatively insensitive to relative humidity. For a millimetric droplet, the projected distance can be more than 1 m, even in still air. Significantly greater droplets and viral deposition are found on a body 1 m away from a cougher, compared to 2 m. Despite low inhalation exposure based on a single cough, infection risks may still manifest through successive coughs or higher viral loadings. AIP Publishing LLC 2020-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7685245/ /pubmed/33244215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0026360 Text en © 2020 Author(s) Published under license by AIP Publishing. 1070-6631/2020/32(11)/113301/11/$30.00 All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | ARTICLES Li, Hongying Leong, Fong Yew Xu, George Ge, Zhengwei Kang, Chang Wei Lim, Keng Hui Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor environment |
title | Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
title_full | Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
title_fullStr | Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
title_full_unstemmed | Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
title_short | Dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
title_sort | dispersion of evaporating cough droplets in tropical outdoor
environment |
topic | ARTICLES |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7685245/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33244215 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/5.0026360 |
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