Event interval: Single day event
Campus location: Bagley Hall (BAG)
Campus room: BAG 260
Accessibility Contact: chem59x@uw.edu
Event Types: Academics,Lectures/Seminars

“Analysis of Aerosol Mass Transfer: Toward a better understanding of disease transmission and mitigation.”
Dr. Nels A. Olson
Host: Rob Synovec

Dr. Olson is an American analytical chemist specializing in root cause failure analysis and corrective actions implementation. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1997 under the guidance of Professor Rob Synovec.

To characterize the transport of respiratory pathogens during commercial air travel, Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations were performed to track particles expelled by coughing by a passenger assigned to different seats on an aircraft. Simulation data were post-processed to calculate the amounts of particles inhaled by nearby passengers. Different airflow rates were used, as well as different initial conditions to account for random fluctuations of the flow field. Overall, 80% of the particles were removed from the cabin in 1.3–2.6 min, depending on conditions, and 95% of the particles were removed in 2.4–4.6 min. Reducing airflow increased particle dispersion throughout the cabin but did not increase the highest exposure of nearby passengers. The highest exposure was 0.3% of the nonvolatile mass expelled by the cough, and the median exposure for seats within 3 feet of the cough discharge was 0.1%, which was in line with empirical data collected both inflight and on the ground using commercial aircraft and selective aerosol detections systems.