Seasonal influenza epidemics have been responsible for causing increased economic expenditures and many deaths worldwide. Evidence exists to support the claim that the virus can be spread through the air, but the relative significance of airborne transmission has not been well defined. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and hot‐wire anemometry (HWA) measurements were conducted at 1 m away from the mouth of human subjects to develop a model for cough flow behavior at greater distances from the mouth than were studied previously. Biological aerosol sampling was conducted to assess the risk of exposure to airborne viruses. Throughout the investigation, 77 experiments were conducted from 58 different subjects. From these subjects, 21 presented with influenza‐like illness. Of these, 12 subjects had laboratory‐confirmed respiratory infections. A model was developed for the cough centerline velocity magnitude time history. The experimental results were also used to validate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models. The peak velocity observed at the cough jet center, averaged across all trials, was 1.2 m/s, and an average jet spread angle of θ = 24° was measured, similar to that of a steady free jet. No differences were observed in the velocity or turbulence characteristics between coughs from sick, convalescent, or healthy participants.

中文翻译：

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来自健康和流感感染受试者的远场人类咳嗽气流的实验研究。


季节性流感流行导致全球经济支出增加和许多人死亡。有证据支持病毒可以通过空气传播的说法，但空气传播的相对重要性尚未明确定义。在距离人类受试者口腔 1 m 处进行粒子图像测速 (PIV) 和热线风速测定 (HWA) 测量，以开发比之前研究的距离口腔更远的咳嗽气流行为模型。进行生物气溶胶采样以评估暴露于空气传播病毒的风险。在整个调查过程中，对 58 名不同的受试者进行了 77 项实验。这些受试者中有 21 人出现流感样疾病。其中，12 名受试者患有实验室确诊的呼吸道感染。开发了咳嗽中心线速度幅度时间历史模型。实验结果还用于验证计算流体动力学（CFD）模型。在咳嗽喷射中心观察到的峰值速度（所有试验的平均值）为 1.2 m/s，测量到的平均喷射展开角为θ = 24°，与稳定自由喷射相似。在患病、恢复期或健康参与者之间的咳嗽速度或湍流特征上没有观察到差异。