Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent flow generated during a violent expiratory event

A main route for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus) transmission involves airborne droplets and aerosols generated when a person talks, coughs, or sneezes. The residence time and spatial extent of these virus-laden aerosols are mainly controlled by their size and the ability of the background flow to disperse them. Therefore, a better understanding of the role played by the flow driven by respiratory events is key in estimating the ability of pathogen-laden particles to spread the infection. Here, we numerically investigate the hydrodynamics produced by a violent expiratory event resembling a mild cough. Coughs can be split into an initial jet stage during which air is expelled through mouth and a dissipative phase over which turbulence intensity decays as the puff penetrates the environment. Time-varying exhaled velocity and buoyancy due to temperature differences between the cough and the ambient air affect the overall flow dynamics. The direct numerical simulation (DNS) of an idealized isolated cough is used to characterize the jet/puff dynamics using the trajectory of the leading turbulent vortex ring and extract its topology by fitting an ellipsoid to the exhaled fluid contour. The three-dimensional structure of the simulated cough shows that the assumption of a spheroidal puff front fails to capture the observed ellipsoidal shape. Numerical results suggest that, although analytical models provide reasonable estimates of the distance traveled by the puff, trajectory predictions exhibit larger deviations from the DNS. The fully resolved hydrodynamics presented here can be used to inform new analytical models, leading to improved prediction of cough-induced pathogen-laden aerosol dispersion.