Aerosol transmission is now well-established as a route in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Factors influencing the transport of virus-laden particles in an elevator cabin are investigated computationally and include human respiratory events, locations of the infected person(s), and the ventilation system (ventilation mode, ventilation capacity, and vent schemes). “Breath,” “cough,” and “sneeze” are defined quantitatively by the fluid jet velocities and particle sizes. For natural ventilation, most particles exhaled by sneezing and coughing tend to deposit on surfaces quickly, but aerosol generated by breathing will remain suspended in the air longer. For forced ventilation, motions of particles under different ventilation capacities are compared. Larger particles otherwise deposited readily on solid surfaces may be slowed down by airflow. Air currents also accelerate the motions of smaller particles, facilitating the subsequent deposition of micrometer or sub-micrometer particles. Locations of the infected person(s) lead to different spreading scenarios due to the distinctive motions of the particles generated by the various respiratory events. Sneeze particles will likely contaminate the person in front of the infected passenger only. Cough particles will increase the risk of all the people around the injector. Breath particles tend to spread throughout the confined environment. An optimized vent scheme is introduced and can reduce particles suspended in the air by up to 80% as compared with commonly used schemes. The purification function of this vent model is robust to various positions of the infected passenger.
Interactions between surface gravity waves and a floating rigid body are complex, as waves may reflect from, break on, and be transmitted behind the body. Studies of these phenomena are critically important in improving the safety and functional efficiency of offshore structures. Here, the wave attenuation performance and motions of a type of floating breakwater (FB) are studied through numerical and experimental approaches. A numerical wave tank (NWT) is developed based on the software OpenFOAM and properties of wave channel from a laboratory. In the NWT, the air–water interface is captured by the volume of fluid method. The motions of FB are tracked by the six degrees of freedom model. A mooring system model is developed to simulate the constraints of the FB. Large eddy simulation turbulence modeling is implemented for the wave breaking processes. A model FB with a scale of 1:20 is tested in both the experimental and numerical wave channel. Wave heights at the back/front of the FB and the constraint forces of the mooring wires are measured. The numerical models are validated by comparing the results with experimental measurements. The variations of transmission/reflection coefficients, energy dissipation rate, and maximum mooring force are calculated. Changes of the response amplitude operators with the ratio of FB width to wavelength ([Formula: see text]) and wave steepness are analyzed. The wave transmission coefficient will drop below 0.8 if the value of [Formula: see text] is larger than 0.3, but will go over 0.95 if [Formula: see text] is less than 0.1. Wave steepness has a large influence on FB motions and the mooring system. The effect of Stokes drift is observed by the shift of position of the FB.
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