journal article·2022-01-01Open access

Experimental study of the dispersion of cough-generated droplets from a person going up- or downstairs

Hongping Wang, Zhaobin Li, Yi Liu, Lixing Zhu, Zhideng Zhou

AIP Advances· Volume 12· Issue 1

Abstract

The dispersion of cough-generated droplets from a person going up- or downstairs was investigated through a laboratory experiment in a water tunnel. This experiment was carried out with a manikin mounted at inclination angles facing the incoming flow to mimic a person going up or down. Detailed velocity measurements and flow visualization were conducted in the water tunnel experiments. To investigate the influence of the initial position on the motion of particles, a virtual particle approach was adopted to simulate the dispersion of particles using the measured velocity field. Particle clustering, which is caused by the unsteadiness of the flow, was observed in both flow visualization and virtual particle simulation. For the case of going upstairs, particles are concentrated below the person’s shoulder and move downward with a short travel distance. For the case of going downstairs, particles dispersing over the person’s head advect over for a long distance. We also found that the motion of the particles is closely related to the initial position. According to the results in this study, suggestions for the prevention of respiratory infectious disease are made.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: Infection Control and Ventilation · Aerodynamics and Acoustics in Jet Flows · Evacuation and Crowd Dynamics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

The State Key Laboratory of Nonlinear Mechanics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences 1 , Beijing 100190, China

School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences 2 , Beijing 100049, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China

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