TY - JOUR
T1 - Infection control measures for public transportation derived from the flow dynamics of obstructed cough jet
AU - Wang, C. T.
AU - Xu, J. C.
AU - Chan, K. C.
AU - Lee, H. H.
AU - Tso, C. Y.
AU - Lin, Carol S.K.
AU - Chao, Christopher Y.H.
AU - Fu, S. C.
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - During the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO and CDC suggest people stay 1 m and 1.8 m away from others, respectively. Keeping social distance can avoid close contact and mitigate infection spread. Many researchers suspect that suggested distances are not enough because aerosols can spread up to 7–8 m away. Despite the debate on social distance, these social distances rely on unobstructed respiratory activities such as coughing and sneezing. Differently, in this work, we focused on the most common but less studied aerosol spread from an obstructed cough. The flow dynamics of a cough jet blocked by the backrest and gasper jet in a cabin environment was characterized by the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. It was proved that the backrest and the gasper jet can prevent the front passenger from droplet spray in public transportation where maintaining social distance was difficult. A model was developed to describe the cough jet trajectory due to the gasper jet, which matched well with PIV results. It was found that buoyancy and inside droplets almost do not affect the short-range cough jet trajectory. Infection control measures were suggested for public transportation, including using backrest/gasper jet, installing localized exhaust, and surface cleaning of the backrest.
AB - During the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO and CDC suggest people stay 1 m and 1.8 m away from others, respectively. Keeping social distance can avoid close contact and mitigate infection spread. Many researchers suspect that suggested distances are not enough because aerosols can spread up to 7–8 m away. Despite the debate on social distance, these social distances rely on unobstructed respiratory activities such as coughing and sneezing. Differently, in this work, we focused on the most common but less studied aerosol spread from an obstructed cough. The flow dynamics of a cough jet blocked by the backrest and gasper jet in a cabin environment was characterized by the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. It was proved that the backrest and the gasper jet can prevent the front passenger from droplet spray in public transportation where maintaining social distance was difficult. A model was developed to describe the cough jet trajectory due to the gasper jet, which matched well with PIV results. It was found that buoyancy and inside droplets almost do not affect the short-range cough jet trajectory. Infection control measures were suggested for public transportation, including using backrest/gasper jet, installing localized exhaust, and surface cleaning of the backrest.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Gasper jet
KW - Jet interaction
KW - Particle image velocimetry
KW - Public transport
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85127327809&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85127327809&origin=recordpage
U2 - 10.1016/j.jaerosci.2022.105995
DO - 10.1016/j.jaerosci.2022.105995
M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal
C2 - 35382445
SN - 0021-8502
VL - 163
JO - Journal of Aerosol Science
JF - Journal of Aerosol Science
M1 - 105995
ER -