ArticlePhysics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994)2020
On coughing and airborne droplet transmission to humans.
Article in Physics of fluids (Woodbury, N.Y. : 1994), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 229 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
229 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 575 citations in OpenAlex.
- Associations between sunshine and influenza or influenza-like illness, a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of biometeorology · 2026Pooled it
- Automated, multiparametric monitoring of respiratory biomarkers and vital signs in clinical and home settings for COVID-19 patients.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Trial
- Mathematical Modeling of Viral RNA Copies in Indoor Environments: Pre-Processor for Risk Assessment and Decision-Making Support Tool for Public Health.Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis · 2026Article
- Impact of hybrid ventilation strategies on mitigating aerosolized respiratory droplet dispersion in kitchen environments.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Incorporating meteorological factors into a SARIMA model for predicting pediatric influenza epidemics.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Recent developments in the field of radiotherapy for the management of lung cancer.Japanese journal of radiology · 2025Review
- 3D modelling and simulation of thermal effects and dispersion of particles carrying infectious respiratory agents in a railway transport coach.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The influence of glottal and respiratory factors on aerosol emission during phonation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Effects of Evaporation and Body Thermal Plume on Cough Droplet Dispersion and Exposure Risk for Queuing People.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- A model for SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission on the upper deck of a passenger ship bound for a short trip.Heliyon · 2024Article
- On the efficacy of facial masks to suppress the spreading of pathogen-carrying saliva particles during human respiratory events: Insights gained via high-fidelity numerical modeling.Medical research archives · 2024Article
- Numerical performance of COScientific reports · 2024Article
- Article
- Reduction by air purifier of particulate concentration during orthodontic procedures: a pilot study.BMC oral health · 2024Article
- Understanding lifetime and dispersion of cough-emitted droplets in air.Indoor + built environment : the journal of the International Society of the Built Environment · 2023Article
- Article
- Numerical study of different ventilation schemes in a classroom for efficient aerosol control.Heliyon · 2023Article
- Assessing the impact of architectural and behavioral interventions for controlling indoor COVID-19 infection risk: An agent-based approach.Journal of building engineering · 2023Article
- Quantifying MR head motion in the Rhineland Study - A robust method for population cohorts.NeuroImage · 2023Article
169 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Our understanding of the mechanisms of airborne transmission of viruses is incomplete. This paper employs computational multiphase fluid dynamics and heat transfer to investigate transport, dispersion, and evaporation of saliva particles arising from a human cough. An ejection process of saliva droplets in air was applied to mimic the real event of a human cough. We employ an advanced three-dimensional model based on fully coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian techniques that take into account the relative humidity, turbulent dispersion forces, droplet phase-change, evaporation, and breakup in addition to the droplet-droplet and droplet-air interactions. We computationally investigate the effect of wind speed on social distancing. For a mild human cough in air at 20 °C and 50% relative humidity, we found that human saliva-disease-carrier droplets may travel up to unexpected considerable distances depending on the wind speed. When the wind speed was approximately zero, the saliva droplets did not travel 2 m, which is within the social distancing recommendations. However, at wind speeds varying from 4 km/h to 15 km/h, we found that the saliva droplets can travel up to 6 m with a decrease in the concentration and liquid droplet size in the wind direction. Our findings imply that considering the environmental conditions, the 2 m social distance may not be sufficient. Further research is required to quantify the influence of parameters such as the environment's relative humidity and temperature among others.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.