Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model

Abstract Recent studies argue that inhalation of respiratory droplets in indoor environments is one of the significant routes of COVID-19 infection. In many cases, patients are isolated in hospitals and quarantine centers to minimize the spread. However, the rooms allocated to these patients are acc...

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Main Authors: Sreekanth Bathula, Srinivasan Anand, Thaseem Thajudeen, Yelia Shankaranarayana Mayya, Probal Chaudhury, Chaturvedi Shashank
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Springer 2021-01-01
Series:Aerosol and Air Quality Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.200547
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author Sreekanth Bathula
Srinivasan Anand
Thaseem Thajudeen
Yelia Shankaranarayana Mayya
Probal Chaudhury
Chaturvedi Shashank
author_facet Sreekanth Bathula
Srinivasan Anand
Thaseem Thajudeen
Yelia Shankaranarayana Mayya
Probal Chaudhury
Chaturvedi Shashank
author_sort Sreekanth Bathula
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Recent studies argue that inhalation of respiratory droplets in indoor environments is one of the significant routes of COVID-19 infection. In many cases, patients are isolated in hospitals and quarantine centers to minimize the spread. However, the rooms allocated to these patients are accessed by health care and sanitization workers a couple of times in a day. Since the expiratory activities release airborne droplets with certain viral load, there is a greater need to study the survival of these droplets in the room of a patient to control the exposure to the accessing people. A bi-compartment and bi-component numerical model is developed to study the survival of these droplets in a room, taking into consideration the deposition rates of the droplets and the ventilation rates in the room. The vital aspects related to the survival of the droplets, such as the effect of the severity of the infection, types of releases, size-dependent deposition and role of ventilation are discussed.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1680-8584
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language English
publishDate 2021-01-01
publisher Springer
record_format Article
series Aerosol and Air Quality Research
spelling doaj-art-01291dd1b48a473fa5b6197f007d5ca12025-02-09T12:20:59ZengSpringerAerosol and Air Quality Research1680-85842071-14092021-01-0121511610.4209/aaqr.200547Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air ModelSreekanth Bathula0Srinivasan Anand1Thaseem Thajudeen2Yelia Shankaranarayana Mayya3Probal Chaudhury4Chaturvedi Shashank5Homi Bhabha National InstituteHomi Bhabha National InstituteSchool of Mechanical Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology GoaDepartment of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology BombayRadiation Safety Systems Division, Bhabha Atomic Research CentreHomi Bhabha National InstituteAbstract Recent studies argue that inhalation of respiratory droplets in indoor environments is one of the significant routes of COVID-19 infection. In many cases, patients are isolated in hospitals and quarantine centers to minimize the spread. However, the rooms allocated to these patients are accessed by health care and sanitization workers a couple of times in a day. Since the expiratory activities release airborne droplets with certain viral load, there is a greater need to study the survival of these droplets in the room of a patient to control the exposure to the accessing people. A bi-compartment and bi-component numerical model is developed to study the survival of these droplets in a room, taking into consideration the deposition rates of the droplets and the ventilation rates in the room. The vital aspects related to the survival of the droplets, such as the effect of the severity of the infection, types of releases, size-dependent deposition and role of ventilation are discussed.https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.200547COVID-19Expiratory releaseSeverity of infectionSize-dependent depositionSurvival of droplets
spellingShingle Sreekanth Bathula
Srinivasan Anand
Thaseem Thajudeen
Yelia Shankaranarayana Mayya
Probal Chaudhury
Chaturvedi Shashank
Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
Aerosol and Air Quality Research
COVID-19
Expiratory release
Severity of infection
Size-dependent deposition
Survival of droplets
title Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
title_full Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
title_fullStr Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
title_full_unstemmed Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
title_short Survival of Expiratory Aerosols in a Room: Study Using a Bi-compartment and Bi-component Indoor Air Model
title_sort survival of expiratory aerosols in a room study using a bi compartment and bi component indoor air model
topic COVID-19
Expiratory release
Severity of infection
Size-dependent deposition
Survival of droplets
url https://doi.org/10.4209/aaqr.200547
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