Do wind instruments disperse COVID aerosol droplets? - Video
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Overview
In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania worked with musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra to deepen our understanding of how much aerosol is produced and dispersed by wind instruments.
The researchers used visualization to characterize the flow and then tracked fog particles in the air with a laser. They also measured aerosol concentration from wind instruments with a particle counter.
Then they combined these two measurements to develop a simple equation to describe aerosol dispersion, in which the aerosol speed decays with distance from the instrument. The idea is to help other researchers determine how far aerosols will travel by measuring the exit flow speed.This informs how fast the flow will decay.
Aerosols emitted by wind instruments shared a similar concentration and size distribution compared to normal speech and respiration events.
"We were surprised that the amount of aerosol produced is of the same range as normal speech," said author Paulo Arratia. "I was expecting much higher flow speeds and aerosol concentrations."
Flow measurements showed that exit jet speeds are much lower than coughing and sneezing events. For most instruments, the maximum decay length is less than 2 meters from the instrument opening. Consequently, wind musicians should stay 6 feet apart, similar to the recommendation for individuals.
Ref:
"Flow and aerosol dispersion from wind musical instruments" authored by Quentin Brosseau,Ranjiangshang Ran, Ian Graham, Douglas J. Jerolmack, and Paulo E. Arratia.Physics of Fluids Aug. 16, 2022 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0098273).
Speakers
Isra Zaman
B.Sc Life Sciences, M.Sc Biotechnology, B.Ed
Isra Zaman is a Life Science graduate from Daulat Ram College, Delhi University, and a postgraduate in Biotechnology from Amity University. She has a flair for writing, and her roles at Medicaldialogues include that of a Sr. content writer and a medical correspondent. Her news pieces cover recent discoveries and updates from the health and medicine sector. She can be reached at editorial@medicaldialogues.in.
Dr Kamal Kant Kohli-MBBS, DTCD- a chest specialist with more than 30 years of practice and a flair for writing clinical articles, Dr Kamal Kant Kohli joined Medical Dialogues as a Chief Editor of Medical News. Besides writing articles, as an editor, he proofreads and verifies all the medical content published on Medical Dialogues including those coming from journals, studies,medical conferences,guidelines etc. Email: drkohli@medicaldialogues.in. Contact no. 011-43720751