Abstract
The protection provided by wearing masks has been a guideline worldwide to prevent the risk of COVID-19 infection. The current work presents an investigation that analyzes the effectiveness of face shields as personal protective equipment. To that end, a multiphase computational fluid dynamic study based on Eulerian–Lagrangian techniques was defined to simulate the spread of the droplets produced by a sneeze. Different scenarios were evaluated where the relative humidity, ambient temperature, evaporation, mass transfer, break up, and turbulent dispersion were taken into account. The saliva that the human body generates was modeled as a saline solution of 8.8 g per 100 mL. In addition, the influence of the wind speed was studied with a soft breeze of 7 km/h and a moderate wind of 14 km/h. The results indicate that the face shield does not provide accurate protection, because only the person who is sneezed on is protected. Moreover, with a wind of 14 km/h, none of the droplets exhaled into the environment hit the face shield, instead, they were deposited onto the neck and face of the wearer. In the presence of an airflow, the droplets exhaled into the environment exceeded the safe distance marked by the WHO. Relative humidity and ambient temperature play an important role in the lifetime of the droplets.
Highlights
IntroductionWe are experiencing a pandemic caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical model based on Eulerian–Lagrangian techniques was presented to analyze the effectiveness of a face shield as personal protective equipment
One of the main conclusions obtained with the scenarios studied in this work is that a social distance of 6 feet is recommended, it is not enough to prevent the contact with viral droplets produced by a sneeze under environmental wind conditions
Summary
We are experiencing a pandemic caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV2, which causes the disease known as COVID-19. The WHO defines the term pandemic as “the worldwide spread of a new disease”. The strategies for combating such a phenomenon are rather limited, and prevention is the best way to control and to reduce the transmission of COVID-19. This is not the first time the world has had to deal with a global situation due to the spread of an infectious disease. During human history there have been several global pandemics such as the Black death, the Spanish flu, and smallpox, among others
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