Shear-thinning property of liquid system in many-body dissipative particle dynamics model

Abstract

Many scientific research papers report that jet-like flow during speech is a potent route for viral transmission in the COVID-19 pandemic. Droplet emission occurs during breaking, speaking, singing, coughing and sneezing, which could be affected by the shear-thinning rheology of the liquid. Here we test the viscosity of simple liquid system in many-body dissipative particle dynamics model under different driven forces, which illustrates that the simple liquid system interestingly has shear-thinning property. Based on this, we simulate the process of jet-like flow and capture the rupture of liquid cylinder and the process of drop generation, which implies the jet-induced liquid pinchoff and drop generation can be regulated by initial driven force and its temperature. The results show that larger pressure pulse could generate longer liquid cylinder and larger drops, as well as at lower force frequency. This work can provide an insight in liquid jet-like flow with shear-thining property and yield a better understanding of virus spreading via salivary droplets.