Influence of indoor relative humidity on the number concentration, size distribution, and trajectory of sneeze droplets: Effects on social distancing guidelines

ABSTRACT: The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is mainly due to the direct transmission routes of SARS-CoV-2 virus-carrying aerosols in indoor environments. In this study, the effect of indoor relative humidity (RH∞) on the number concentration, size distribution, and trajectory of sneeze droplets was studied in a confined space experimentally and numerically. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations using the renormalization group k-ε turbulence model by considering the one-way and two-way (humidity) coupling models were performed to assess the effects of humidity fields on the propagation of droplets. Number concentration profiles indicated that the RH∞ affected the dispersion modes of droplets differently for the puff, droplet cloud, fully-dispersed, and dilute-dispersed droplets phases iden

SUBMITTER: Bahramian A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9931425 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature