Mingotti, N, Wood, R, Noakes, C orcid.org/0000-0003-3084-7467 et al. (1 more author) (2020) The mixing of airborne contaminants by the repeated passage of people along a corridor. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 903. A52. ISSN 0022-1120
Abstract
We report a series of experiments in which a cylinder, with a vertical axis, is moved back and forth along a long narrow channel containing fresh water at Reynolds numbers Re = 3220–13 102. We examine the mixing of a cloud of dye along the channel by the oscillatory motion of the cylinder. Using light attenuation techniques to measure the time evolution of the concentration of dye along the channel, we find that at early times the concentration profile collapses to a Gaussian profile with dispersivity, D = (2.4 ± 0.5)fdW, where f is the frequency of the cylinder oscillation, d is the diameter of the cylinder and W is the width of the channel, respectively. For times much longer than L2/D, with L being the length of the channel, the concentration becomes progressively more uniform over the whole length of the channel, and we show that the long-time non-uniform component decays with time dependence exp(−4π2Dt/L2). We consider the implications of these experiments for the dispersal of viral aerosols along poorly ventilated corridors, with implications for infection transmission in hospitals and public buildings.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), 2020. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | mixing and dispersion, wakes, turbulent mixing |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Civil Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/G029768/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 05 Oct 2020 15:12 |
Last Modified: | 05 Oct 2020 15:12 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/jfm.2020.671 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:166311 |
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