Mahmoud Alzoubi

Ph.D., P.Eng., Assistant Professor

Implication of coughing dynamics on safe social distancing in an indoor environment—A numerical perspective


Journal article


Jay Muthusamy, Syed Haq, Saad Akhtar, Mahmoud Alzoubi, Tariq Shamim, Jorge Alvarado
Building and Environment, vol. 206, 2021

PubMed DOI
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APA   Click to copy
Muthusamy, J., Haq, S., Akhtar, S., Alzoubi, M., Shamim, T., & Alvarado, J. (2021). Implication of coughing dynamics on safe social distancing in an indoor environment—A numerical perspective. Building and Environment, 206.


Chicago/Turabian   Click to copy
Muthusamy, Jay, Syed Haq, Saad Akhtar, Mahmoud Alzoubi, Tariq Shamim, and Jorge Alvarado. “Implication of Coughing Dynamics on Safe Social Distancing in an Indoor Environment—A Numerical Perspective.” Building and Environment 206 (2021).


MLA   Click to copy
Muthusamy, Jay, et al. “Implication of Coughing Dynamics on Safe Social Distancing in an Indoor Environment—A Numerical Perspective.” Building and Environment, vol. 206, 2021.


BibTeX   Click to copy

@article{jay2021a,
  title = {Implication of coughing dynamics on safe social distancing in an indoor environment—A numerical perspective},
  year = {2021},
  journal = {Building and Environment},
  volume = {206},
  author = {Muthusamy, Jay and Haq, Syed and Akhtar, Saad and Alzoubi, Mahmoud and Shamim, Tariq and Alvarado, Jorge}
}

Abstract

Coughing is a primary symptomatic pathway of respiratory or air-borne disease transmission, including COVID-19. Several parameters such as cougher’s age, gender, and posture affect particle dispersion indoors. This study numerically investigates the transient cough evolution, contamination range, particle reach probability, and deposition fraction for different age groups of males and females in standing and sitting postures in a ventilated room. The efficacy of a cloth mask has also been studied with and without the influence of air ventilation. Validated Computational Fluid Dynamics methodology has been implemented to model complex physics such as turbulent buoyant cloud, particle–air interaction, particle collision/breakup, and droplet evaporation. Our results show that overall, the contamination range is slightly lower for females due to lower cough velocities and particle counts. Moreover, a significant fraction of particles crosses the two meters social distancing guideline threshold with an unhindered cough. Besides, wearing a cloth mask reduces the average contamination range by approximately two-third of the distance compared to coughing without the mask. However, aerosolized particles reach longer streamwise distances and drift for extended durations beyond thirty seconds. This study can be used to improve the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning recommendations and distancing guidelines in indoor settings.