title: Study of SARS transmission via liquid droplets in air.
abstract: Microscale liquid droplets could act as the SARS carriers in air when released from an infected person through breathing, coughing, or sneezing. In this study, a dynamic model has been built to quantitatively investigate the effect of the relative humidity on the transport of liquid-droplets in air using coupled mass transfer and momentum equations. Under higher relative humidity, the exhaled liquid droplets evaporate slowly. Larger droplets fall faster, which could reduce the probability of the droplets inhalation. This may be one of the most important factors that influence the SARS transmission in air.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: L X
authors.initials: LX
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000336:Aerosols; D000391:Air Microbiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010316:Particle Size; D012212:Rheology / Q000379:methods; D045473:Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus / Q000502:physiology*; D045169:Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome / Q000635:transmission* / Q000821:virology*; D012996:Solutions; D014132:Trachea / Q000382:microbiology*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D000336:Aerosols; D012996:Solutions