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Violent expiratory events: on coughing and sneezing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

Lydia Bourouiba ,
Eline Dehandschoewercker  and
John W. M. Bush
Lydia Bourouiba*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02130, USA Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02130, USA
Eline Dehandschoewercker
Affiliation:
PMMH - ESPCI, O207 10, rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
John W. M. Bush
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02130, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: lbouro@mit.edu
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Abstract

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Violent respiratory events such as coughs and sneezes play a key role in transferring respiratory diseases between infectious and susceptible individuals. We present the results of a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the fluid dynamics of such violent expiratory events. Direct observation of sneezing and coughing events reveals that such flows are multiphase turbulent buoyant clouds with suspended droplets of various sizes. Our observations guide the development of an accompanying theoretical model of pathogen-bearing droplets interacting with a turbulent buoyant momentum puff. We develop in turn discrete and continuous models of droplet fallout from the cloud in order to predict the range of pathogens. According to the discrete fallout model droplets remain suspended in the cloud until their settling speed matches that of the decelerating cloud. A continuous fallout model is developed by adapting models of sedimentation from turbulent fluids. The predictions of our theoretical models are tested against data gathered from a series of analogue experiments in which a particle-laden cloud is ejected into a relatively dense ambient. Our study highlights the importance of the multiphase nature of respiratory clouds, specifically the suspension of the smallest drops by circulation within the cloud, in extending the range of respiratory pathogens.

JFM classification

Biological Fluid Dynamics: Biological Fluid Dynamics Multiphase and Particle-laden Flows: Multiphase and Particle-laden Flows Turbulent Flows: Turbulent Flows

Information

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 745 , 25 April 2014 , pp. 537 - 563
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 

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