Transmission and evaporation of cough droplets in an elevator: Numerical simulations of some possible scenarios

As the world learns to live with COVID-19 and activities/business open up, the use of elevators becomes frequent. A pertinent question is what happens if someone accidentally coughs inside the elevator. In this work, a three dimensional Euler–Lagrangian model is used to understand the transmission and evaporation of micrometer-sized droplets in such cases. The effect of turbulence created by the air puff associated with coughing has been considered. Different possible scenarios varying in the presence of air ventilation within the elevator, number of persons coughing, direction of ejection of cough droplets, and ambient relative humidity and temperature have been postulated and simulated. The results obtained show that in the presence of proper ventilation within the elevator, most of the ejected cough droplets fall to the ground before impacting other persons traveling in the same elevator. However, in the absence of proper ventilation, the turbulence created during coughing transmits the particles all across the elevator enclosure.