This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Biological Sciences - Article
Bjorn Birnir
University of California-Santa Barbara
Corresponding Author
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This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
A model of the distribution of respiratory droplets and aerosols by Lagrangian turbulent air-flow is developed and used to show how the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus can be dispersed by the breathing of an infected person. It is shown that the concentration of viruses in the exhaled cloud can increase to infectious levels with time (grow linearly), in a confined space where the air re-circulates. The model is used to analyze the air-flow and SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus build-up in a restaurant in Guangzhou, China 23, 21. It is concluded that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in the restaurant in January 2020, is due to the build-up of the airborne droplets and aerosols carrying the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and would not have been pre- vented by standard ventilation. A comparison with standard models for aerosol concentration shows that, in the absence of ventilation, the decay of the aerosol concentration is also con- trolled by the decay time of the virions in aerosols. This decay time is very long and a steady state is not achieved in the time-frame of the contagion. Instead the concentration exhibits a polynomial increase and reaches infectious levels in a relatively short time, explaining the outbreak in the restaurant in Guangzhou.
Keywords
SARS-CoV-2, aerosols, ventilation
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There is NO Competing Interest.
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This is a preprint, a preliminary version of a manuscript that has not completed peer review at a journal. Research Square does not conduct peer review prior to posting preprints. The posting of a preprint on this server should not be interpreted as an endorsement of its validity or suitability for dissemination as established information or for guiding clinical practice.
Biological Sciences - Article
Bjorn Birnir
University of California-Santa Barbara
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
The most recent version of this article is available here.
No community comments so far
Version 1
Posted 02 Dec, 2020
No comments provided
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
The most recent version of this article is available here.
A model of the distribution of respiratory droplets and aerosols by Lagrangian turbulent air-flow is developed and used to show how the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus can be dispersed by the breathing of an infected person. It is shown that the concentration of viruses in the exhaled cloud can increase to infectious levels with time (grow linearly), in a confined space where the air re-circulates. The model is used to analyze the air-flow and SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus build-up in a restaurant in Guangzhou, China 23, 21. It is concluded that the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in the restaurant in January 2020, is due to the build-up of the airborne droplets and aerosols carrying the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus and would not have been pre- vented by standard ventilation. A comparison with standard models for aerosol concentration shows that, in the absence of ventilation, the decay of the aerosol concentration is also con- trolled by the decay time of the virions in aerosols. This decay time is very long and a steady state is not achieved in the time-frame of the contagion. Instead the concentration exhibits a polynomial increase and reaches infectious levels in a relatively short time, explaining the outbreak in the restaurant in Guangzhou.
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There is NO Competing Interest.
This is a list of supplementary files associated with this preprint. Click to download.
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