Abstract
Turbulent dispersion of passive scalar quantities has been extensively studied in wind tunnel settings, where the flow is carefully conditioned using flow straighteners and grids. Much less is known about turbulent dispersion in the "unconditioned" flows generated by fans that are ubiquitous in indoor environments, despite the importance of these flows to pathogen and contaminant transport. Here, we demonstrate that a point source of scalars released into an airflow generated by an axial fan yields a plume whose width is invariant with respect to the fan speed. The results point toward a useful simplification in modeling of disease and pollution spread via fan-generated flows.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 055114 |
| Journal | Physics of Fluids |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - May 30 2014 |
Fingerprint
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics
Cite this
Turbulent dispersion via fan-generated flows. / Halloran, Siobhan K.; Wexler, Anthony S.; Ristenpart, William D.
In: Physics of Fluids, Vol. 26, No. 5, 055114, 30.05.2014.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Turbulent dispersion via fan-generated flows
AU - Halloran, Siobhan K.
AU - Wexler, Anthony S.
AU - Ristenpart, William D.
PY - 2014/5/30
Y1 - 2014/5/30
N2 - Turbulent dispersion of passive scalar quantities has been extensively studied in wind tunnel settings, where the flow is carefully conditioned using flow straighteners and grids. Much less is known about turbulent dispersion in the "unconditioned" flows generated by fans that are ubiquitous in indoor environments, despite the importance of these flows to pathogen and contaminant transport. Here, we demonstrate that a point source of scalars released into an airflow generated by an axial fan yields a plume whose width is invariant with respect to the fan speed. The results point toward a useful simplification in modeling of disease and pollution spread via fan-generated flows.
AB - Turbulent dispersion of passive scalar quantities has been extensively studied in wind tunnel settings, where the flow is carefully conditioned using flow straighteners and grids. Much less is known about turbulent dispersion in the "unconditioned" flows generated by fans that are ubiquitous in indoor environments, despite the importance of these flows to pathogen and contaminant transport. Here, we demonstrate that a point source of scalars released into an airflow generated by an axial fan yields a plume whose width is invariant with respect to the fan speed. The results point toward a useful simplification in modeling of disease and pollution spread via fan-generated flows.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905241049&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84905241049&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/1.4879256
DO - 10.1063/1.4879256
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84905241049
VL - 26
JO - Physics of Fluids
JF - Physics of Fluids
SN - 0031-9171
IS - 5
M1 - 055114
ER -