A Preliminary Numerical Investigation of Airborne Droplet Dispersion in Aircraft Cabins

The emergence of the novel coronavirus has led to a global pandemic which has led to the airline industry facing severe losses. For air travel to recover, airlines need to ensure safe air travel. In this paper, the authors have modeled droplet dispersion after a single breath from an index patient. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are conducted using the k-ωSST turbulence model in ANSYS Fluent. The authors have taken into consideration several parameters such as the size of the mouth opening, the velocity of the cabin air as well as the number of droplets being exhaled by the index patient to ensure a realistic simulation. Preliminary results indicate that after a duration of 20 s, droplets from the index patient disperse within a 10 m2 cabin area. About 75% of the droplets are found disperse for up to 2 m axially behind the index patient. This could possess an enhanced risk to passengers sitting behind the index patient. Ultimately, this paper provides an insight into the potential of CFD to visualise droplet dispersal and give impetus to ensure that necessary mitigating measures can be taken to reduce the risk of infection through droplet dispersal.

A Study of Shallow Cumulus Cloud Droplet Dispersion by Large Eddy Simulations

Cloud droplet dispersion is an important parameter in estimating aerosol indirect effect on climate in general circulation models（GCMs）.This study investigates droplet dispersion in shallow cumulus clouds under different aerosol conditions using three-dimensional large eddy simulations（LES）.It is found that cloud droplet mean radius,standard deviation,and relative dispersion generally decrease as aerosol mixing ratio increases from 25 mg-1（clean case） to 100 mg-1（moderate case）,and to 2000 mg-1（polluted case）.Under all the three simulated aerosol conditions,cloud droplet mean radius and standard deviation increase with height.However,droplet relative dispersion increases with height only in the polluted case,and does not vary with height in the clean and moderate cases.The mechanisms for cloud droplet dispersion are also investigated.An additional simulation without considering droplet collision-coalescence and sedimentation under the aerosol mixing ratio of 25 mg-1 shows smaller values of droplet mean radius,standard deviation,and relative dispersion as compared to the base clean case.This indicates that droplet collision-coalescence plays an important role in broadening droplet spectra.Results also suggest that the impact of homogeneous mixing on cumulus cloud droplet spectra is significant under all the three simulated aerosol conditions.In weak mixing（strong updraft） regions where clouds are closer to be adiabatic,cloud droplets tend to have larger mean radius,smaller standard deviation,and hence smaller relative dispersion than those in stronger mixing（downdraft or weak updraft） regions.The parameterized cloud optical depth in terms of cloud liquid water content,droplet number concentration,and relative dispersion is only slightly smaller than the result calculated from detailed droplet spectra,indicating that current parameterization of cloud optical depth as used in many GCMs is plausible for low clouds.

Relationships between Cloud Droplet Spectral Relative Dispersion and Entrainment Rate and Their Impacting Factors

Cloud microphysical properties are significantly affected by entrainment and mixing processes.However,it is unclear how the entrainment rate affects the relative dispersion of cloud droplet size distribution.Previously,the relationship between relative dispersion and entrainment rate was found to be positive or negative.To reconcile the contrasting relationships,the Explicit Mixing Parcel Model is used to determine the underlying mechanisms.When evaporation is dominated by small droplets,and the entrained environmental air is further saturated during mixing,the relationship is negative.However,when the evaporation of big droplets is dominant,the relationship is positive.Whether or not the cloud condensation nuclei are considered in the entrained environmental air is a key factor as condensation on the entrained condensation nuclei is the main source of small droplets.However,if cloud condensation nuclei are not entrained,the relationship is positive.If cloud condensation nuclei are entrained,the relationship is dependent on many other factors.High values of vertical velocity,relative humidity of environmental air,and liquid water content,and low values of droplet number concentration,are more likely to cause the negative relationship since new saturation is easier to achieve by evaporation of small droplets.Further,the signs of the relationship are not strongly affected by the turbulence dissipation rate,but the higher dissipation rate causes the positive relationship to be more significant for a larger entrainment rate.A conceptual model is proposed to reconcile the contrasting relationships.This work enhances the understanding of relative dispersion and lays a foundation for the quantification of entrainment-mixing mechanisms.

Downstream pressure and elastic wall reflection of droplet flow in a T-junction microchannel

This paper discusses pressure variation on a wall during the process of liquid flow and droplet formation in a T-junction microchannel. Relevant pressure in the channel, deformation of the elastic wall, and responses of the droplet generation are analyzed using a numerical method.The pressure difference between the continuous and dispersed phases can indicate the droplet-generation period. The pressure along the channel of the droplet flow is affected by the position of droplets, droplet-generation period, and droplet escape from the outlet. The varying pressures along the channel cause a nonuniform deformation of the wall when they are elastic. The deformation is a vibration and has the same period as the droplet generation arising from the process of droplet formation.

A single-cell encapsulation method based on a microfluidic multi-step droplet splitting system

Single cell analysis is of great significance to understand the physiological activity of organisms.Microfluidic droplet is an ideal analytical platform for single-cell analysis. We developed a microfluidic droplet splitting system integrated with a flow-focusing structure and multi-step splitting structures to form 8-line droplets and encapsulate single cells in the droplets. Droplet generation frequency reached1021 Hz with the aqueous phase flow rate of 1 m L/min and the oil phase flow rate of 15 mL /min. Relative standard deviation of the droplet size was less than 5% in a single channel, while less than 6% in all the8 channels. The system was used for encapsulating human whole blood cells. A single-cell encapsulation efficiency of 31% was obtained with the blood cell concentration of 2.5 ？ 104cells/mL, and the multicellular droplet percentage was only 1.3%. The multi-step droplet splitting system for single cell encapsulation featured simple structure and high throughput.

A novel method for the determination of trace copper in cereals by dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic drop coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A novel,simple,rapid,efficient and environment-friendly method for the determination of trace copper in cereal samples was developed by using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction based on solidification of floating organic drop（DLLME-SFO） followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry.In the DLLME-SFO,copper was complexed with 8-hydroxy quinoline and extracted into a small volume of 1-dodecanol,which is of low density,low toxicity and proper melting point near room temperature. The experimental parameters affecting the extraction efficiency were investigated and optimized.Under the optimum conditions, the calibration graph exhibited linearity over the range of 0.5—500 ng/mL with the correlation coefficient（r） of 0.9996.The enrichment factor was 122 and the limit of detection was 0.1 ng/mL.The method was applied to the determination of copper in the complex matrix samples such as rice and millet with the recoveries for the spiked samples at 5.0 and 10.0 u,g/g falling in the range of 92.0-98.0%and the relative standard deviation of 3.9-5.7%.