Spread of Sneezing and Coughing in a Subway Car

Abstract

Throughout human history, epidemics have occurred in many cases, which have also affected society and the economy. At the end of 2019, the COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-19 virus appeared and caused a pandemic in 2020, which resulted in unprecedented changes both globally and individually.

In our article, we were analysing the spreading and evolution of a violent expiratory event (sneeze, cough) in a subway car. In our research, we followed a sneezed/coughed air using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, thus it became visible in which directions the coughed volume spreads.

Using our results, passengers’ sense of security can be increased, therefore if someone sneezes in the studied subway car, the passengers can decide that the sneezing is a real risk of infection for them or not.