Propagation and evaporation of contaminated droplets, emission and exposure in surgery environments revealed by laser visualization and numerical characterization.

The contaminated liquid mixture containing mucosalivary fluid and blood would be aerosolized during medical procedures, resulting in higher-risk exposures. The novelty of this research is integrating laser visualization and numerical characterization to assess the propagation and evaporation of contaminated droplets, and the interactive effects of humidity and temperature on exposure risks will be numerically evaluated in surgery environments. The numerical model evidenced by experiments can predict the mass balance of ejection droplets, the minimum required fallow time (FT) between appointments, and the disinfection region of greatest concern.

Numerical Analysis of the Mitigation Performance of a Buried PT-WIB on Environmental Vibration.

Environmental vibration pollution has serious negative impacts on human health. Among the various contributors to environmental vibration pollution in urban areas, rail transit vibration stands out as a significant source. Consequently, addressing this issue and finding effective measures to attenuate rail transit vibration has become a significant area of concern.

An Infinity Tube with an Expansion Chamber for Noise Control in the Ductwork System.

This paper proposes a muffler with simple geometry to effectively reduce low-frequency noise in ductwork systems. A muffler named infinity tube with an expansion chamber (ITEC) is developed from the infinity tube (IT). Theoretical and numerical analyses of wave propagation in the ITEC have been conducted in this paper.

Restoration of dental services after COVID-19: The fallow time determination with laser light scattering.

In time, dental health care has slowly expanded beyond emergency treatment to treat oral diseases. How to reduce the cross-transmission risk in dental surgery has raised much more attention. Considering the lack of consistency of fallow time (FT) in its necessity and duration, the highly sensitive laser light scattering method has been proposed to visualize the airborne lifetime and decay rate of suspended particles in the dental surgery environment.

How the high-volume evacuation alters the flow-field and particle removal characteristics in the mock-up dental clinic.

The exposure risk of droplets and aerosols emitted from the oral cavity to the dental professionals and patients has received more attention especially the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19. The aim of this study is to address the question about how the use of the high-volume evacuation (HVE) alters the risk profiles compared with the situation only personal protective equipment (PPE). The risk profiles of the different situations were analyzed in terms of droplet velocity, flow field characteristics, and particle removal efficiency.

Evaluating flow-field and expelled droplets in the mockup dental clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the setting of widespread severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) community transmission, reducing the exposure risk on dental professionals and the next patients is the key to reopening dental services in this pandemic environment. The study is motivated by the lack of understanding of the flow-field characteristics and droplet distribution during aerosol-generating procedures. The particle image velocimetry measurements with high temporal and spatial resolutions were performed under ultrasonic scaling in the mockup experimental dental clinic.

Analysis of urban road traffic noise exposure of residential buildings in hong kong over the past decade.

Introduction: With the development of transportation system and the economy, the rapidly increasing number of automobiles brings the associated problem of road traffic noise, especially in metropolitan and densely populated high-rise cities like Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, approximately one million people are affected by severe road traffic noise. Excessive noise exposure is hazardous to the health and wellbeing of people and therefore has drawn progressively more attention in Hong Kong.

Investigation of interunit dispersion in 2D street canyons: A scaled outdoor experiment.

Interunit dispersion problems have been studied previously mainly through on-site measurements, wind tunnel tests, and CFD simulations. In this study, a scaled outdoor experiment was conducted to examine the interunit dispersion characteristics in consecutive two-dimensional street canyons. Tracer gas ( ) was continuously released to simulate the pollutant dispersion routes between the rooms in street canyons.

Numerical evaluations of urban design technique to reduce vehicular personal intake fraction in deep street canyons.

High-rise deep street canyons usually experience poor ventilation and large vehicular pollutant exposure to residents in near-road buildings. Investigations are still required to clarify the flow and dispersion mechanisms in deep street canyons and explore techniques to reduce such large pollutant exposure. By conducting computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations validated by wind tunnel data and scale-model outdoor field measurements, we investigate the integrated impacts of aspect ratios, first-floor and second-floor elevated building designs, viaduct settings, height variations and wind catchers on the flow, personal intake fraction (P_IF) of CO (carbon dioxide) and its spatial mean value 〈P_IF〉 in two-dimensional (2D) street canyons.

Improving pedestrian level low wind velocity environment in high-density cities: A general framework and case study.

An acceptable pedestrian level wind environment is essential to maintain an enjoyable outdoor space for city residents. Low wind velocity environment can lead to uncomfortable outdoor thermal experience in hot and humid summer, and it is unable to remove the pollutants out of city canyons. However, the average wind velocity at pedestrian level is significantly lowered by closely spaced tall buildings in modern megacities.

The influence of envelope features on interunit dispersion around a naturally ventilated multi-story building.

This study examines the influence of building envelope features on interunit dispersion around multi-story buildings, when the presence of an upstream interfering building is also considered. Validated CFD methods in the steady-state RANS framework are employed. In general, the reentry ratios of pollutant from a source unit to adjacent units are mostly in the order of 0.

Evaluation of pedestrian wind comfort near 'lift-up' buildings with different aspect ratios and central core modifications.

Owing to the void space at lower heights, lift-up buildings have high building permeability at ground level and subsequently improve the air circulation in congested urban areas. Despite this advantage, the lift-up design has been sparsely adopted for buildings in urban areas partly because of the lack of understanding of the combined effects of building dimensions and lift-up design on the surrounding pedestrian level wind (PLW) field. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the influence of lift-up buildings with different aspect ratios (height/width) on the surrounding PLW field and pedestrian wind comfort level.

Dental Environmental Noise Evaluation and Health Risk Model Construction to Dental Professionals.

Occupational noise is unavoidably produced from dental equipment, building facilities, and human voices in the dental environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of occupational noise exposure on the dental professionals' health condition. The psychoacoustics approach noise exposure assessment followed by the health risk assessment was carried on at the paediatric dentistry clinic and the dental laboratory in the Prince Philip Dental Hospital of Hong Kong.

Optimization of natural frequencies of a plate structure by modifying boundary conditions.

A combined approach based on finite element method and genetic algorithm (FEM-GA) is proposed for optimizing the natural frequencies of plate structures. This approach can identify the optimal boundary conditions so that the plate's natural frequencies can be adjusted simultaneously to their corresponding target values. In this approach, the natural frequencies of plates with arbitrary boundary conditions are calculated by FEM, while GA is employed for searching the optimal solutions of the multiple-objective optimization problem.

Noise Attenuation Performance of a Helmholtz Resonator Array Consist of Several Periodic Parts.

The acoustic performance of the ducted Helmholtz resonator (HR) system is analyzed theoretically and numerically. The periodic HR array could provide a wider noise attenuation band due to the coupling of the Bragg reflection and the HR's resonance. However, the transmission loss achieved by a periodic HR array is mainly dependent on the number of HRs, which restricted by the available space in the longitudinal direction of the duct.

Noise control zone for a periodic ducted Helmholtz resonator system.

This paper presents a theoretical study of the dispersion characteristics of sound wave propagation in a periodic ducted Helmholtz resonator (HR) system. The predicted result fits well with a numerical simulation using a finite element method. This study indicates that for the same system, no matter how many HRs are connected or what the periodic distance is, the area under average transmission loss T L¯ curves is always the same.

Are the noise levels acceptable in a built environment like Hong Kong?

Governments all over the world have enacted environmental noise directives and noise control ordinances/acts to protect tranquility in residential areas. However, there is a lack of literature on the evaluation of whether the Acceptable Noise Levels (ANLs) stipulated in the directive/ordinance/act are actually achievable. The study aimed at measuring outdoor environmental noise levels in Hong Kong and identifying whether the measured noise levels are lower than the stipulated ANLs at 20 categories of residential areas.

Minimizing the transient vibroacoustic response of a window to sonic booms by using stiffeners.

A stiffened-window strategy is proposed for reducing the window's transient responses to sonic booms. Additional movable and controllable stiffeners are used, which can improve the window's transient vibration and noise isolation performance without significantly reducing transparency. A simple prediction model is proposed as a design tool for implementing the stiffened-window structure, which allows for the computation of a plate with arbitrary elastic boundary conditions and arbitrarily located stiffeners.

Wave propagation in a duct with a periodic Helmholtz resonators array.

Helmholtz resonator is often used to reduce noise in a narrow frequency range. To obtain a broader noise attenuation band, combing several resonators is a possible way. This paper presents a theoretical study of sound propagation in a one-dimensional duct with identical side-branch resonators mounted periodically.

A four-part setting on examining the anxiety-provoking capacity of the sound of dental equipment.

This paper reports the results of a four-part questionnaire survey to assess the effects of the sound of dental equipment on people's perceptions and dental anxiety levels. The convenience sample for the survey comprised 230 dental students and 230 gender and age matched non-dental university students. The subjects were requested to complete the questionnaires themselves.

The effects of elastic supports on the transient vibroacoustic response of a window caused by sonic booms.

The transient vibration and sound radiation (TVSR) of plate-like structures with general elastic boundary conditions was investigated using the time-domain finite element method (TDFEM) and time-domain boundary element method (TDBEM). In this model, the structure can have arbitrary elastic boundary conditions and hence the effects of the boundary conditions on the TVSR can be effectively studied. The predicted results agreed well with existing experimental data using two classical boundary conditions: simply supported at all edges and clamped-free-free-free.

Experimental validation of the sound transmission of rectangular baffled plates with general elastic boundary conditions.

Several prediction methods have recently been developed for systematically studying the effects of general boundary conditions on the sound transmission loss (STL) of plate-like structures. But corresponding experimental validation studies remain scarce owing to the difficulty of obtaining accurate boundary conditions for practical structures. This paper presents a convincing experiment conducted on a baffled plate system to validate the STL prediction model in a previous paper by Yu et al.

A study of coupled flexural-longitudinal wave motion in a periodic dual-beam structure with transverse connection.

A theoretical study of the multi-coupling flexural and longitudinal waves that propagate in a periodic dual-beam-type waveguide with structural connection branches is conducted. The analytical equations of the transfer matrix method are derived for the wave transmission with consideration given to the fully flexural and longitudinal motions that are tri-coupled at each connection. Based on this transfer matrix method, numerical calculation is performed to investigate the characteristic wave-types that propagate in a semi-infinite periodic structure.