Credit: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Wind blowing in the same direction as a cough can increase viral transmission.In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay found when a person coughs outdoors, wind flowing in the same direction can propagate the virus faster over longer distances than in calm conditions.Large eddy simulation model representing the evolution of a cough jet.Credit: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Most studies model cough flow using puffs of air or a simple pulsating profile.To investigate these vortices, the researchers used a large eddy simulation, a numerical model in computational fluid dynamics that simulates turbulence.As the cough jet evolves and spreads, it interacts with the wind flowing in the same direction, and the bigger infected droplets become trapped in the jet’s vortices instead of falling relatively quickly to the ground under gravity.
“The increase in residential time of some of the larger droplets will increase the viral load transmitting through the cough jet and, therefore, the chances of infection,” Agrawal said.Reference: “Effect of co-flow on fluid dynamics of a cough jet with implications in spread of COVID-19” by Sachidananda Behera, Rajneesh Bhardwaj, and Amit Agrawal, 12 October 2021, Physics of Fluids.October 12, 2021
October 11, 2021October 11, 2021October 11, 2021October 11, 2021October 11, 2021October 11, 2021October 11, 2021
UK
Australia
France
Germany
Russia
India
Canada