Effect of sneeze flow velocity profiles on the respiratory droplets dispersion in a confined space: An experimental and computational fluid dynamics study

Abstract

In this study, the effects of sneeze velocity profiles, including peak velocity (PV), peak velocity time (PVT), and sneeze duration time (SDT), on the dispersion of respiratory droplets were studied experimentally and numerically. Spatial–temporal datasets of droplet velocity exhaled from several subjects' mouths with different physiological characteristics were obtained by particle image velocimetry. A direct relationship was found between the forced vital capacity and PV, while the subject's body mass index significantly affected the SDT. A transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach using the renormalization group k–ε turbulence model in conjunction with the Lagrangian particle tracking was developed and used to simulate sneeze droplet motion characteristics. Both one-way and two-way (humidity) coupling models were used in these simulations. The CFD results showed that the two-way (humidity) coupling model provided better agreement with the data in the turbulent and expanded puff zones than the one-way coupling model. The one-way model led to reasonably accurate results in the fully dispersed and dilute-dispersed droplet phases. The effect of injection duration time and injection angle on PVT was larger than that on PV values, while the effect of initial injection velocity on PV was higher than that on PVT values. In addition, the initial injection velocity and angle significantly affected the maximum spreading distance of droplets dmax,sp. The numerical results obtained from the dilute-dispersed droplet phase were in good agreement with the trajectories of isolated droplets in the experimental data. The findings of this study provide novel insights into the effect of sneeze velocity profiles on dmax,sp, and the sneezer subject physiological effect on the threshold distance for the transmission of respiratory pathogens in a confined space.