Study: Cough droplet can travel up to 6.6 metres

Study: Cough droplet can travel up to 6.6 metres

There have been studies in the recent months that tracked the flight trajectory of cough droplets during the pandemic and now, latest research has claimed that a single cough droplet - under wind speed of two metres per second - can travel up to 6.6 metres and even further under dry air conditions due to droplet evaporation.

The researchers from Singapore incorporated important aspects of fluid physics to deepen the understanding of viral transmission. In a paper published in the journal 'Physics of Fluids', researchers from the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore conducted a numerical study on droplet dispersion using high fidelity air flow simulation.

"In addition to wearing a mask, we found social distancing to be generally effective, as droplet deposition is shown to be reduced on a person who is at least one metre from the cough," said study author Fong Yew Leong. A typical cough emits thousands of droplets across a wide size range.

The scientists found large droplets settled on the ground quickly due to gravity but could be projected one metre by the cough jet even without wind. Medium-sized droplets could evaporate into smaller droplets, which are lighter and more easily borne by the wind, and these travelled further.

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