A computational study of expiratory particle transport and vortex dynamics during breathing with and without face masks
arXiv:2104.07490 · doi:10.1063/5.0054204
Abstract
We present high-fidelity numerical simulations of expiratory biosol transport during normal breathing under indoor, stagnant air conditions with and without a facial mask. We investigate mask efficacy to suppress the spread of saliva particles that is underpinnings existing social distancing recommendations. The present simulations incorporate the effect of human anatomy and consider a spectrum of saliva particulate sizes that ranges from 0.1 micrometers to 10 micrometers while accounting also for their evaporation. The simulations elucidate the vorticity dynamics of human breathing and show that without a facial mask, saliva particulates could travel over 2.2 m away from the person. However, a non-medical grade face mask can drastically reduce saliva particulate propagation to 0.72 m away from the person. This study provides new quantitative evidence that facial masks can successfully suppress the spreading of saliva particulates due to normal breathing in indoor environments.
References in corpus (5)
- The Flow Physics of COVID-19
- A Mathematical Framework for Estimating Risk of Airborne Transmission of COVID-19 with Application to Face Mask Use and Social Distancing
- Visualizing droplet dispersal for face shields and masks with exhalation valves
- Effects of space sizes on the dispersion of cough-generated droplets from a walking person
- The dispersion of spherical droplets in source-sink flows and their relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic