Numerical study of the transport of droplets or particles generated by respiratory system indoors

The outbreak of atypical pneumonia, referred to as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), has spread to many countries in the world. SARS may infect human bodies by the tiny droplets or particles carrying various virus and bacteria, which are generated by the respiratory system of infected patients. This paper presents the numerical analysis of the influence of generating ways of the droplets or particles on the transport and distribution of the droplets or particles indoors. The drift flux model, which considers the settling of particles or droplets under the effect of gravitational sedimentation, is adopted to simulate the droplets transport and distribution indoors during respiration and sneezing or coughing process, while the simplified model for solving the continuous fluid flow is combined. Two different cases considering the normal respiration and coughing or sneezing are studied, respectively, and two different outlet velocities from the mouth for the sneezing or coughing process are considered. The results show that droplets or particles generated by normal breathing process transport a relatively short distance, while droplets or particles generated during coughing or sneezing may travel much longer distances, which may pose adverse effect on human bodies for defending the SARS or other infectious diseases. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.