Turbulent dispersion of breath by the wind

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates how aerosols disperse in turbulent airflow, revealing a ballistic-to-diffusive transition and non-diffusive decay of CO2, with implications for understanding pathogen transmission and educational approaches.

Contribution

It provides new experimental insights into aerosol dispersion at small source scales, challenging classical diffusion models, and demonstrates pedagogical and public health applications.

Findings

Aerosol dispersion exhibits a ballistic-to-diffusive transition.

CO2 concentration decays as inverse squared distance, not by classical diffusion law.

Experimental results inform public health policies for indoor air safety.

Abstract

The pioneering work of G.I. Taylor on the turbulent dispersion of aerosols is exactly one century old and provides an original way of introducing both diffusive processes and turbulence at an undergraduate level. Light enough particles transported by a turbulent flow exhibit a Brownian-like motion over time scales larger than the velocity correlation time. Aerosols are therefore subjected to an effective turbulent diffusion at large length scales. However, the case of a source of pollutant much smaller than the integral scale is not completely understood. Here, we present experimental results obtained by undergraduate students in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The dispersion of a smoke of oil droplets by a turbulent flow is studied in a wind tunnel designed for pedagogical purposes. It shows a ballistic-like regime at short distance, followed by Taylor's diffusive-like regime, suggesting that the continuous cascade is bypassed. Accordingly, measurements show that the CO$_2$ concentration emitted when breathing typically decays as the inverse squared distance to the mouth, which is not the law expected for a diffusion. The experiment offers the possibility for students to understand the role of fluctuations in diffusive processes and in turbulence. The non-linear diffusive equations governing aerosol dispersion, based on a single correlation time, allow us to model the airborne transmission risk of pathogens, indoors and outdoors. We discuss the pedagogical interest of making students work on applied scientific problems, as the results obtained in this study have been used to provide public health policy recommendations to prevent transmission in French shopping malls.